I can't think of anyone as profoundly ignorant, or as uniquely unqualified to be appointed Secretary of Education as Betsy…

I can't think of anyone as profoundly ignorant, or as uniquely unqualified to be appointed Secretary of Education as Betsy…

…oh, wait, never-mind.

Let's not forget that neoliberal school privatization is a bipartisan project. Both parties fail education.

A natural progression of neoliberalism

• Rod Paige
• Margaret Spellings
• Arne Duncan
• John King
• Betsy DeVos

Not opposing the neoliberal corporate education reform agenda when Democrats were in charge is what led to the DeVos disaster. Not unlike how the Hillary Rodham Clinton camp's "Elevating Pied Piper Candidates" led to the Trump fiasco.

Confronting the Clinton cheerleaders with her racist record

“Hillary Clinton is not a Klanswoman, but she performs the same racial violence that white men do, just as many Klanswomen did less than a century ago. Thousands of black people continue to lose their lives because some white women still want to be as “badass” and powerful as the white men who silenced them in the home, held back their right to vote, and brutalized as many black people as they desired.” — Ahmad Greene-Hayes

The Clinton cheerleading that has been building up to a crescendo at Professor Ravitch's site reached a new nadir today. I suppose we will see a lot of this between now and November. It's hard to see people using the excuse of opposing one racist to support another racist, but that's what this election boils down to. Although I should avoid engaging those steeped in supporting neoliberalism, I couldn't avoid posting the following comments:

As horrifying as the prospect of Trump is, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that he is the only racist representing a major political party in this election. Indeed, the genteel, more insidious racism of his Democratic opponent is equally disconcerting. While Trump can't speak without uttering bigotry, are we supposed to ignore his opponent's racist slurs against Native Americans with her infamous "off the reservation" remark? Are we to excuse her vile "super-predators" speech where she says that "we have to bring them to heel" in reference to children of color? I understand her apologists excuse that kind of racist rhetoric, but any of us that live and breath social justice are in agreement with the distinguished Professor Michelle Alexander, who says, "Hillary Clinton" uses "racially coded rhetoric to cast black children as animals." And while Trump talks about border walls, Clinton proudly reminds us "I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in…" Clinton and Trump's use of the racist term "illegal" is in itself bigoted and nativist. In fact, even the Associated Press stopped using the horrible phrase some time ago. We can discuss how terrible Trump's rhetoric is on issues of immigration, but Clinton has an actual record to scrutinize, and it is a record of the most vile bigotry in practice.

I'll stop here because I realize that speaking truth to power on this issue will do little more than evoke lesser evilism responses. No one will actually be able to defend Trump or Clinton's records on the issues I've raised, because they are indefensible. I'll be voting for the same feminist this November that I did in 2012 — her name is Dr. Jill Stein. Stein, by the way, has the best stances on education. She opposes charters and vouchers, opposes high-stakes standardized testing, stands with teachers, and called the Obama Administration out on its appointment of the doltish John King. It don't recall the candidates from the major parties ever taking such principled stands.

Like the sage Professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor says: "Clinton will never be a lesser evil."

Guest Post: Dr. Jill Stein: A failing grade for Obama's Education pick

“Public education is another example where there has been a complete scam [regarding privatization]—charter schools are not better than public schools—and in many cases they are far worse. They cherry-pick their students so they can show better test scores. The treasure of our public schools system has been assaulted by the process of privatization.” — Dr. Jill Stein

Dr. Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President, has consistently articulated the best public education platform of all the candidates. Her basic education tenets are the anthesis of those advanced by the neoliberal corporate education reform crowd:

Education as a Right: Abolish student debt to free a generation of Americans from debt servitude. Guarantee tuition-free, world-class public education from pre-school through university. End high stakes testing and public school privatization.

Her campaign sent out a press release on the woefully inappropriate appointment of John King as Secretary of Education. So well reasoned and written, it warrants reproduction here:

---

A failing grade for Obama's Education pick

President Obama’s choice for Education Secretary has earned a failing grade from parents, students, teachers, and education advocates across the nation.

Former New York State Education Commissioner John King’s education reforms have been such a disaster for NY schools that last year an incredible 20% of students opted out of the Common Core high-stakes tests introduced by King.

King’s corporate education agenda has given Wall Street A+ profits, but has robbed our children of the quality education they need and deserve.

That’s why I’m asking you to join my call today for a public education system that puts our children first, not corporate profits!

How do we know that Obama’s new Education Secretary is the wrong choice to be in charge of our schools? Let’s look at his report card.

John King co-founded Roxbury Academy in Boston, a charter school noted for rigid, authoritarian zero-tolerance policies that gave it one of the highest suspension rates in the state. In some years, students were punished with suspension at a rate ten times the state average or more.

As NYS Education Commissioner, King moved quickly to implement Common Core standards, which the Obama administration coerced schools into accepting by offering “Race to the Top” money while many school budgets were being slashed due to the recession and austerity.

Despite a firestorm of controversy across the state over the rushed implementation of high-stakes testing, as well as the lack of field testing and input from parents, teachers and students, King brushed off these concerns and insisted on ramming his plan through.

Warnings from King’s critics came true in 2013, when just 31% of students passed the new Common Core math and reading tests.

We’ve seen a common pattern with the education agenda pushed by Wall Street and standardized test corporations: high-stakes testing sets up public schools to fail, paving the way for the takeover of education by charter schools with their profits subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

Within two years after King’s disastrous Common Core rollout, 20% of students were sitting out the tests in protest. Even NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, who appointed King as commissioner, told state education officials that “Common Core’s implementation in New York has been flawed and mismanaged from the start.”

So John King gets an A for boosting corporate profits from high-stakes testing, but an F for improving educational opportunities and outcomes for students.

It’s outrageous that both Democrats and Republicans agree on an education agenda that comes from Wall Street profiteers.

Sign and share my call for an education system designed to educate our children, not to enrich corporate profiteers!

As President, I will halt the destructive push for high-stakes testing and school privatization. Instead of teaching to the test, we need to teach to the whole student for lifetime learning.

We also need increased federal public education funding to correct the shameful disparities between rich and poor school districts, and policies to reverse the growing de facto race and class segregation in public schools.

I will work together with educators, parents, and students to create a world-class public education system that works for people, not profit.

Because our children deserve better.

It’s in our hands!

Good News: Duncan Is Done. Now for the Bad News . . .

Story here.

John King's "Bar Exam" for Teachers Who Are Paid Like Clerks

Lawyers' median pay?  $113,000.  Teachers' median pay?  $53,000.  Judicial law clerk? $47,000.

Ready or not, here comes John King's Pearson test: 

New York Education Commissioner John King and a Board of Regents committee have released a full-throated endorsement of the state's controversial new teacher certification system.

In a statement distributed this morning, King rejected calls to postpone the implementation of the new system, which the department calls the "bar exam" for teachers. In response to criticism that the system has been rushed, King said the state began working on it in 2009 and has spent $11.5 million in federal Race to the Top money helping teacher colleges prepare for it.

He said the system was originally scheduled to begin last year, but the state postponed it to this year to ensure colleges and students were prepared for it.

King said the state is raising academic standards for students and that "success of that effort requires that we demand just as much excellence from the educators who will teach them."

Many aspiring teachers and their professors have raised red flags over the new system, which includes three certification tests created or modified by the education giant Pearson Inc. and a new assessment called the Educative Teacher Performance Assessment, or edTPA.

The edTPA was created by a group at Stanford University but is being implemented by Pearson. It is widely expected to result in fewer teacher candidates receiving certification than in previous years.

Teacher candidates must submit an extensive portfolio to Pearson that includes lesson plans, student assessments, video clips of classroom teaching and written narratives detailing the student-teacher's approach. Students foot the $300 cost of the submission.

The submissions are graded by remote evaluators hired by Pearson and paid $75 per submission. The evaluators are expected to spend about two hours grading each one.

Critics say the exams have been rushed into place, are too expensive for students and put too heavy a burden on them as they pursue their student teaching. They also question the involvement of Pearson, which holds numerous multimillion-dollar contracts with the state Education Department.

New York and Washington are the only states using the edTPA assessment as part of their teacher certification process, although 32 states are working with it in some fashion. . . .

John King Gives Uncommon Schools a Free Pass on Teacher Evaluation Scheme

Before he was Commissioner of Ed in New York, John King ran the KIPP knock-off charter chain, Uncommon Schools, which depends upon the same forced winnowing techniques to run off low test scorers, ELLs, and special ed students.

Now King is giving his former chain gang charters a pass on the Rube Goldberg teacher eval system based on the monstrous TN system.

Story from the Daily News:

State Education Commissioner John King is overhauling the state’s method of evaluating teachers, but the charter schools he used to run aren’t participating. 

The high-performing Uncommon Schools — which include 20 schools in Brooklyn — have opted out of receiving federal Race to the Top funds, meaning they don’t have to follow the new state rules in teacher evaluations 

“Uncommon Schools have very extensive procedures for teacher evaluation and professional development; their principals are in classrooms every day, observing teachers, giving teachers feedback,” said King, defending the decision, though acknowledging there’s no way for city public schools to opt out. . . .

Balderdash! While these state evaluation procedures being enforced by Mr. King are highly flawed and detrimental; it's pernicious that Mr. King gives the charters carte blanche. It's terribly ironic that experienced and highly educated public school principals are not allowed to do what they were trained to do, yet inexperienced leadership academy principals, principals who took a quick course in the unaccredited Broad Academy, and completely unqualified charter CEOs are permitted to evaluate THEIR teachers. Since charter schools have such a high turnover rate, and so many TFA teachers with no education background or credentials but a 5 week course, one wonders if they will even have time to evaluate their "teachers" before they leave.Balderdash! While these state evaluation procedures being enforced by Mr. King are highly flawed and detrimental; it's pernicious that Mr. King gives the charters carte blanche. It's terribly ironic that experienced and highly educated public school principals are not allowed to do what they were trained to do, yet inexperienced leadership academy principals, principals who took a quick course in the unaccredited Broad Academy, and completely unqualified charter CEOs are permitted to evaluate THEIR teachers. Since charter schools have such a high turnover rate, and so many TFA teachers with no education background or credentials but a 5 week course, one wonders if they will even have time to evaluate their "teachers" before they leave.
Balderdash! While these state evaluation procedures being enforced by Mr. King are highly flawed and detrimental; it's pernicious that Mr. King gives the charters carte blanche. It's terribly ironic that experienced and highly educated public school principals are not allowed to do what they were trained to do, yet inexperienced leadership academy principals, principals who took a quick course in the unaccredited Broad Academy, and completely unqualified charter CEOs are permitted to evaluate THEIR teachers. Since charter schools have such a high turnover rate, and so many TFA teachers with no education background or credentials but a 5 week course, one wonders if they will even have time to evaluate their "teachers" before they leave.Balderdash! While these state evaluation procedures being enforced by Mr. King are highly flawed and detrimental; it's pernicious that Mr. King gives the charters carte blanche. It's terribly ironic that experienced and highly educated public school principals are not allowed to do what they were trained to do, yet inexperienced leadership academy principals, principals who took a quick course in the unaccredited Broad Academy, and completely unqualified charter CEOs are permitted to evaluate THEIR teachers. Since charter schools have such a high turnover rate, and so many TFA teachers with no education background or credentials but a 5 week course, one wonders if they will even have time to evaluate their "teachers" before they leave.

When Bribes Don't Buy Buy-In, New York Ed Commish Tries the Extortion Route

From the NY Times, by Fernanda Santos:

New York State’s education commissioner threatened on Tuesday to withhold tens of millions of dollars in federal grants to struggling schools in New York City and nine other districts statewide if they do not prove by Saturday that they will carry out new evaluation systems for teachers and principals.

Officials and union leaders in each district must first agree on the details of the evaluation systems, like how much weight students’ standardized test scores will have on the annual ratings that teachers and principals receive. Compromise has thus far proved elusive.

Of the 10 districts, which are the only recipients of the federal grants in New York, only Rochester and Syracuse as of Tuesday had submitted proposals for the state’s review, the commissioner, John B. King Jr., said in a statement. “When the ball drops at midnight on New Year’s Eve,” he said, “the money drops off the table, and it will be difficult to get it back.”

For New York City, it would mean losing roughly $60 million for 33 schools whose graduation rates and test scores put them among the state’s worst.

The money, known as school improvement grants, is supposed to help the schools lift their results through a series of changes, like replacing principals and at least half the staff members; giving teachers extra time for training and preparation; and extending the school day. In New York City, it offers, in essence, an alternative to the most common approach to dealing with failing schools, which has been to close them.

And there might be more at stake. Dr. King said Tuesday that the 10 districts could also lose their shares of the $700 million in federal financing that New York State won through the Race to the Top competition, because carrying out an evaluation system in struggling schools is among its requirements.

The Race to the Top program requires a new statewide teacher-evaluation system, and the methods used in the struggling schools could shape it, because districts are unlikely to want competing processes.

The State Legislature passed a bill last year calling for new evaluation systems, but the unions and the Board of Regents have been battling in court over the role of standardized test scores.

In response to Dr. King’s threat on Tuesday, New York City’s schools chancellor, Dennis M. Walcott, released a statement saying that city and teachers’ union officials had been in discussions for months and were all “cognizant of the deadline.”

The two sides are scheduled to meet on Wednesday and Thursday to discuss the evaluation system, and the union’s president, Michael Mulgrew, said Tuesday that there was still hope for a deal.

The school improvement grants have been the subject of increased scrutiny in recent weeks, after Dr. King and the chancellor of the Board of Regents, Merryl H. Tisch, visited several of the beneficiary schools and then expressed their frustrations over the way the money was being used.

In biting remarks, Dr. Tisch called the schools “warehouses” for struggling students, who were pushed there after the city shut the schools they used to attend.