Greg Palast: Obama Slam-Duncans Education

[Guest guest]

What will be Obama's policy on IDEA? More Bush?

We are going to have to raise our voices with Obama?

http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/dec/17/greg-palast-obama-slam-duncans-education

Greg Palast: Obama Slam-Duncans Education

By Greg Palast

Hey, you Liberal Democrats. You may have won the election, but you're

getting CREAMED in the transition.

Today, President-elect Barack Obama stuck it to you. He's chosen Arne

Duncan as Secretary of Education.

Who? Duncan is most decidedly not an educator. He's a lawyer. But

Duncan has this extraordinary qualification: He's Obama's pick-up

basketball buddy from Hyde Park.

I can't make this up.

Not that Duncan hasn't mucked about in the educational system. Chicago

Boss Richie Daley put this guy in charge of the horror show called

Chicago Public Schools where Duncan turned a bad system into a REALLY

bad system.

And Obama knows it. Indeed, although he plays roundball with Duncan

(who was captain of the Harvard basketball team), State Senator Obama

was one of the only local Chicago officials who refused to send his

kids to Duncan's public schools. (The Obamas sent Sasha and Malia to

the Laboratory School, where Duncan's methods are derided as

dangerously ludicrous.)

So, if The One won't trust his kids to Duncan, why is he handing

Duncan ours?

The answer: Duncan is supported by a coterie of teacher-union hating

Republicans. The vocal cheerleader for the Duncan appointment was

, the New York Times columnist; the REPUBLICAN columnist.

Hey, didn't those guys LOSE?

The problem with Duncan is not party affiliation. The problem is

education philosophy. And Duncan is a Bush baby through and through, a

card-carrying supporter of the program best called, " No Child's Behind

Left. "

At the heart of the program is testing. And more testing. Testing

instead of teaching. When tests go badly, the solution is to push the

low-test-score kids to drop out of school. If triage isn't enough,

then attack their teachers.

Here's how Duncan operates this Bush program in Chicago at

High in the Lawndale ghetto. Teachers there work with kids from

homeless shelters from an economically devastated neighborhood.

Believe it or not, the kids don't get high test scores. So Chicago

fired the teachers, every one of them. Then they brought in new

teachers and fired THEM too when, surprise!, test scores still didn't

rise.

The reward for a teacher volunteering for a tough neighborhood is to

get harassed, blamed and fired. Now THAT'S a brilliant program, Mr.

Duncan. But Duncan's own failures have not gotten HIM fired. As long

as his 20-foot jumpshot holds, he's Mr. Secretary.

In no other cabinet department is the lack of expertise, lack of

accomplishment, lack of a degree in the field found acceptable but in

Education.

But what horrifies me more than Duncan's lack of credentials is

Obama's kowtowing to the right-wing clique crusading against the

teachers' union and progressive education. The ill philosophy behind

the Bush-brand education theories Duncan promotes, " Teach-to-the-

Test, " forces teachers to limit classroom time to pounding in rote low-

end skills, easily measured on standardized tests. The transparent

purpose is to create a future class of worker-drones. Add in some

computer training and - voila! - millions of lower-income kids are

trained on the cheap to function, not think.

Analytical thinking skills, creative skills, questioning skills are

left exclusively to privileged little Bushes at Andover

Academy or privileged little Obamas at the Laboratory School.

For the rest of America's children, instead of hope, we'll have hoops.

[Guest guest]

Not impressed. I wasn't able to find anything on the web showing that

Arne stood for anything at all and he appears to have never

taken a position on anything important to this movement. He reminds

me too much of Insel-- kind of a dangerous cipher.

Besides, I just have very bad feelings about his dental work.

>

> What will be Obama's policy on IDEA? More Bush?

>

> We are going to have to raise our voices with Obama?

>

>

> http://airamerica.com/blog/2008/dec/17/greg-palast-obama-slam-

duncans-education

> Greg Palast: Obama Slam-Duncans Education

> By Greg Palast

>

>

> Hey, you Liberal Democrats. You may have won the election, but

you're

> getting CREAMED in the transition.

>

> Today, President-elect Barack Obama stuck it to you. He's chosen

Arne

> Duncan as Secretary of Education.

>

> Who? Duncan is most decidedly not an educator. He's a lawyer. But

> Duncan has this extraordinary qualification: He's Obama's pick-up

> basketball buddy from Hyde Park.

>

> I can't make this up.

>

> Not that Duncan hasn't mucked about in the educational system.

Chicago

> Boss Richie Daley put this guy in charge of the horror show called

> Chicago Public Schools where Duncan turned a bad system into a

REALLY

> bad system.

>

> And Obama knows it. Indeed, although he plays roundball with

Duncan

> (who was captain of the Harvard basketball team), State Senator

Obama

> was one of the only local Chicago officials who refused to send

his

> kids to Duncan's public schools. (The Obamas sent Sasha and Malia

to

> the Laboratory School, where Duncan's methods are derided as

> dangerously ludicrous.)

>

> So, if The One won't trust his kids to Duncan, why is he handing

> Duncan ours?

>

> The answer: Duncan is supported by a coterie of teacher-union

hating

> Republicans. The vocal cheerleader for the Duncan appointment was

> , the New York Times columnist; the REPUBLICAN

columnist.

>

> Hey, didn't those guys LOSE?

>

> The problem with Duncan is not party affiliation. The problem is

> education philosophy. And Duncan is a Bush baby through and

through, a

> card-carrying supporter of the program best called, " No Child's

Behind

> Left. "

>

> At the heart of the program is testing. And more testing. Testing

> instead of teaching. When tests go badly, the solution is to push

the

> low-test-score kids to drop out of school. If triage isn't enough,

> then attack their teachers.

>

> Here's how Duncan operates this Bush program in Chicago at

> High in the Lawndale ghetto. Teachers there work with kids from

> homeless shelters from an economically devastated neighborhood.

> Believe it or not, the kids don't get high test scores. So Chicago

> fired the teachers, every one of them. Then they brought in new

> teachers and fired THEM too when, surprise!, test scores still

didn't

> rise.

>

> The reward for a teacher volunteering for a tough neighborhood is

to

> get harassed, blamed and fired. Now THAT'S a brilliant program,

Mr.

> Duncan. But Duncan's own failures have not gotten HIM fired. As

long

> as his 20-foot jumpshot holds, he's Mr. Secretary.

>

> In no other cabinet department is the lack of expertise, lack of

> accomplishment, lack of a degree in the field found acceptable but

in

> Education.

>

> But what horrifies me more than Duncan's lack of credentials is

> Obama's kowtowing to the right-wing clique crusading against the

> teachers' union and progressive education. The ill philosophy

behind

> the Bush-brand education theories Duncan promotes, " Teach-to-the-

> Test, " forces teachers to limit classroom time to pounding in rote

low-

> end skills, easily measured on standardized tests. The transparent

> purpose is to create a future class of worker-drones. Add in some

> computer training and - voila! - millions of lower-income kids are

> trained on the cheap to function, not think.

>

> Analytical thinking skills, creative skills, questioning skills

are

> left exclusively to privileged little Bushes at Andover

> Academy or privileged little Obamas at the Laboratory School.

>

> For the rest of America's children, instead of hope, we'll have

hoops.

>

[Guest guest]

Correction: Arne Duncan, not . Freudian slip (how's that for an

invective, Lenny?).

>

> Not impressed. I wasn't able to find anything on the web showing that

> Arne stood for anything at all and he appears to have never

> taken a position on anything important to this movement. He reminds

> me too much of Insel-- kind of a dangerous cipher.

>

> Besides, I just have very bad feelings about his dental work.

>

[Guest guest]

At the risk of drawing fire, I would like to say that I believe NCLB was the

best thing to happen to public ed since IDEA.

[Guest guest]

While the " concept and theory " of the NCLB Act may be admirable - it

is riddled with corruption. Just for starters - the CTB/McGraw-Hill

publishing company dominates the educational standardized testing

market. The McGraw and Bush family connections go way back. Also,

what companies are making money off of the " evidence-based practices "

used by schools/districts....follow the money.

McGraw-Hill & Bush: The Graft and the Twig

http://schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/08/mcgraw-hill-bush-graft-and-

twig.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/3oamzz

older article

KEEPING PUBLIC SCHOOLS PUBLIC

Testing Companies Mine for Gold

http://www.rethinkingschools.org/special_reports/bushplan/test192.shtm

l

You might want to investigate who's scoring these standardized tests,

too.

http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_outrages.html?id=464

>

> At the risk of drawing fire, I would like to say that I believe

NCLB was the best thing to happen to public ed since IDEA.

>

[Guest guest]

Yes, I understand that there are problems with the corporate exploitation of

this law, but that is a reason to expose and end that corruption, not to abandon

the underlying law.

Many people fail to understand exact;y why NCLB came about and what its

intentions are. For decades the Feds have addressed deficits with the States'

fulfillment of their obligation to educate children. The Feds would write a

bill and throw some money to the States, and the States would spend the money

however they saw fit and then manipulate data and lie to show they were

achieving the results desired when they weren't. Meanwhile, more and more kids

were being graduated without actually mastering the skills they would need to go

on to college, and in the changing focus of our society which is losing

blue-collar jobs for informational jobs this meant that a smaller and smaller

percentage of our kids would be suitable for the workforce.

Finally Congress had enough and decided to make the attempt to set the stage in

a manner that would not allow the States to lie. Where it is being enacted in a

positive way it is indeed working. Where the educrats are not interested in

addressing the root concerns it is not. Instead of abandonning NCLB I think it

would be better to address the actual deficits in the system and take corrective

action.

And I do not think ohanion is the right person to cite in this argument.

She is a card-carrying warrior for Big Ed Union and an appologist for any

situation which might possibly fault the teachers.