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Until Congress overhauls all K-12 education in this country no President is going to fix the serious problems in our K-12 system. Only at the college level (where federal research dollars and loans are in affect) does the Federal Government really hit students where it counts.
Think of it this way, With his elevation Duncan is out of the Chicago District, where he could actually affect black and brown students. Now he's a toady for Obama in a position that has nominal, if any, real power to change education.
For anyone who thinks that property tax and parent's wealth is not the primary factor affecting education in the US just look at California, and even here in Washington, where parents have gone around the government to infuse their kid's schools with money using "donations" to ensure their children have more than children of lesser means.
Wow, is this the change we turned out for in record numbers? I'm going to para quote Tavis Smiley and say if this is what it means to have an African American President.................
So the educators were replaced by politicos who knew JACK about providing education beyond the resources and costs - here comes the state lottery and because the educators are no longer found in state education governance, California slips in the national rankings to DEAD LAST.
I should know; I was educated in the public school system in Oakland, California and until 1980, it was a decently run education system. After the passage of Prop. 13 - the revenues from property taxes to school districts began to show wide gaps in what urban schools received and what the schools in rural and suburban areas received.
I've already stated that Obama is sending messages to the people that elected him and with this choice, while I don't know shyt about this guy, what I've heard is not pretty, and can a repeat of the shyt left by Rod Paige in terms of "No Child Left Behind" be too far away?
If you have an important resource like EDUCATION which even you would agree provides a gateway to the future for our young people who have young and impressionable minds.....AND since the reality of Prop 13 which (rightfully) acknowledged that there is no endless well of resources that can be extracted from the property owners WHY is it that the very people who say "People over PROFITS" when they are protesting outside of an EVIL CORPORATION use these same signs and turn inward to the ADULTS and tell them that these children are their prized possessions? Ask them what are they willing to yield so that more effective HUMAN RESOURCES are applied to these schools so that these kids are educated as needed for the community's survival?
You all but admit that you are a net DEPENDENT on resources to flow INTO the community that the community's own economic productivity was not able to generate. If indeed Oakland is RESOURCE RICH with humans - what can be implemented that makes use of these adults to expose these students to the education that they are in need of?
[quote]can a repeat of the shyt left by Rod Paige in terms of "No Child Left Behind" be too far away?[/quote]
Christian Progressive-Fundamentalist the character assassin extraordinaire.
Just for grins - could you detail which former Federal Education Secretary had 'the right stuff' in your view?
Does the fact that Barack Obama - the man that you gave nearly every waking hour of your consciousness to in support - WILL CONTINUE "NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" during his presidency tell you that it is YOU who might serve as a good permanent revolutionary but are apparently lacking in PRAGMATISM?
Does it seem odd that the two key "Evil Bush policies" that Progressive Fundamentalists like you attacked from day one have been adopted by Barack Obama? (NCLB and "Faith Based Initiatives")
Is it possible that the programs themselves were not flawed but that you were bigoted in regards to the messenger?
Again - please detail the track record of success in educating at risk kids that anyone that you favor has put forth?
(She sucks her teeth and walks away.)
Why is it that the first reaction to an Obama appointment that goes in intriguing direction always gets a 'Oh. Hell. No.' reaction on JJP? Seriously, its gotten old. These folks haven't actually done anything yet and folks all up in arms. How about a wait-and-see attitude for once?
I'm not from Illinois, so I don't know this guys record personally, only what I've read.
But I try not to speak in absolutes, ya know...THE WORST, NEVER, ALWAYS...etc. It keeps you from making blanket statements about something, and then having to retract or defend it later.
But as I said, I"m not from Illinois, so I haven't really experienced the facts.
What did he do (or did not do) in the Chicago school system that bothers you.
the closing of schools without thought as to what would happen when you shove one school population into other schools. - the social consequences.
First of all, what the hell does the sec of education do? education is a power of the states, not the federal govt. So for many years, up until the Bush administration, POC have been relaged to these lesser positions: education, health and human services, etc...while whites control state, defense, treasury, justice, NSA, and of course POTUS.
So obama's tossing a privileged white person into the education dept. I think he has a sense of humor.
must have something going on, to have achieved this?
don't know him. never heard him. having just a bachelor's is pretty surprising, but that makes me think he must have something going on . . .
My dislike of Duncan stems from his non-leadership in Chicago. Whatever Daley wants, Duncan does. His practice consists of closing "non-performing" schools and then to re-open the school with new principal, staff, pupils usually upgraded facilities.
Furthermore, the last thing that Duncan has experience with is community consultation and support. Yikes, his record sucks when it comes to this.
I just cannot believe this.
And this is a bad thing because?
I guess the degree doesn't (shouldn't?) matter if he's been in a similar role. I probably would've taken a state educational leader vice a city one, but that's me.
I'd like to know (as I'm still working on branching out) what exactly his results have been. I'm certain he's pissed people off, but if there's been a "turn" in Chicago's schools, then maybe he's at least capable. Personally, someone who's willing actually hold educators accountable for something gets a plus in my book....so if he's shutting down schools that aren't performing-regardless of what neighboorhood they're in-good on him.
We've spent decades lowering academic standards to the lowest common denominator, so that we supposedly don't leave anyone out. What has that gotten us? 50% drop-out rates in some communities. Clearly lowering the standards is not the answer. And anyone who knows anything about children would know that. Children rise to meet expectations. There's nothing more bigoted than having no expectations of a child. I've encountered way too many "educators" who are more concerned about preserving the status quo than they are about building better schools. From what I've read, drop out rates are lower in Chicago and test scores are higher. Personally I don't see the problem.
I hope that people who really care about children are the ones who are running our Department of Education and our schools. And if this man is about building good schools for children and families who want an education I say here, here.
I am not a Duncan fan either. My fiance is a public school teacher
with CPS well on her way to becoming an administrator for the system.
She does a daily rant about him and I'm trying to convince her to run
for the board. Maybe with him in DC things will get better in
Chicago.
Her issues:
1. He is closing underperforming schools in disadvantaged areas and
opening charter schools in the very same building. The new school
will only accept the best performing students leaving the poor
performing students no school close to home. This is causing a huge
dropout rate.
2. The budgets are being slashed at the traditional schools to fund
the new charter schools. The slashed budgets are affecting counseling
and core curriculum. The biggest issue with some of the poor
performing schools is that these kids are coming from broken homes.
Counseling is critical to even get the students to the base
performance level. And with cuts in other programs these children
have lost the only stability in their lives.
3. And from what I hear the school lunch program could have been
designed by Ronald Reagan.
We need to take this pick very seriously. We are happy to lose Dunkin
here in Chicago but I worry about the rest of the country. I hope
that Pres Elect Obama does engage in open debate with Dunkin and
doesn't let him have free reign on school policy.
I read some where that Obama and this guy hang out alot together playing basket ball. So, I guess he's hooking up his boy! But sadly this pick sucks badly....Though I like all his other cabinet picks but not this one.
performing students no school close to home."
Isn't that what charter schools are supposed to do? Be there for the best students. Perhaps the poor performing students can be motivated to improve so that they can attend a school closer to home. Call me an elitist or what have you, but I don't have any problem with someone who is focused on making the best schools for kids who are interested in performing at their best level. Perhaps it's past time for the US to get like the rest of the world and focus our education efforts on those who want to be educated, while directing others to trade schools and other routes. Clearly the notion of universal education will only work if everyone wants to be educated. In these times of very limited resources it may well be in best interest to direct those resources more effectively.
We just hired a man at our university who has a Ph.D. in education from Harvard. I'll get back to evryone as far as the Harvard take on this appointment.
The American Prospect gives a more nuanced view of the man.
MEET ARNE DUNCAN, OBAMA'S EDUCATION PICK.
With the Democratic Party embroiled in internal debate over public school reform, it is very much like Barack Obama to tap Chicago public schools CEO Arne Duncan as education secretary. Duncan is one of the only prominent education leaders in the country who signed both the Broader, Bolder and the Education Equality Project manifestos. Duncan, a longtime Obama friend and adviser, has shown particular interest in early childhood education, a major part of Obama's education and anti-poverty agenda. And he sends his own kids to Chicago public schools. Here's hoping he'll live in the city when he moves to D.C. and continue his family's track record of support for the public system.
But although Duncan is being hailed as a compromise between free-market education reformers and teachers' unions, we shouldn't delude ourselves as to the nature of Duncan's relationship with the Chicago Teachers Union. Duncan closed schools (never a popular move), removed teachers from the classroom, and supported charter schools, which now make up about 10 percent of the Chicago system. To get a sense of the grassroots opposition to Duncan, check out the Caucus of Rank and File Teachers and Substance News. Notably, these two groups, critics from the left, believe the Chicago Teachers Union is corrupt and little better than management at representing teachers' and students' needs; on the other hand, a more centrist observer, Alexander Russo, writes that Duncan hasn't been tough enough in his negotiations with the union, and should have done more to attract middle class and affluent families to Chicago's public schools. Russo also snarks that national union chief Randi Weingarten's recent kind words about Duncan's relationship with the CTU could hardly have been made "with a straight face."
Any pick of an actual superintendent to head the Department of Education, as opposed to a governor relatively ignorant of the nitty gritty of education debates, is a move by Obama in the direction of serious, hands-on reform. That's good news, I think, for those of us -- regardless of ideology -- who hope education will become a first tier issue under the Obama administration.
I support giving educational control back to parents, who know their children better than any politician in D.C. ever will.
The federal government has no constitutional authority to fund or control schools. I want to abolish the unconstitutional, wasteful Department of Education and return its functions to the states. By removing the federal subsidies that inflate costs, schools can be funded by local taxes, and parents and teachers can directly decide how best to allocate the resources.
To help parents with the costs of schooling, I have introduced H.R. 1056, the Family Education Freedom Act, in Congress. This bill would allow parents a tax credit of up to $5,000 (adjustable after 2007 for inflation) per student per year for the cost of attendance at an elementary and/or secondary school. This includes private, parochial, religious, and home schools.
Another bill I have sponsored, H.R. 1059, allows full-time elementary and secondary teachers a $3,000 yearly tax credit, thus easing their financial burden and encouraging good teachers to stay in an underpaid profession.
Many parents have already shown their desire to be free of federal control by either enrolling their children in private schools or homeschooling them. And students enrolled in these alternatives have consistently performed better and tested higher than those in state-run schools.
Years of centralized education have produced nothing but failure and frustrated parents. We can resurrect our public school system if we follow the Constitution and end the federal education monopoly.
skip to main | skip to sidebar Dr. Ron Paul 2008
Limited Government * Non-Interventionism * Respect for Individual Rights * Strict Adherence to the Constitution
Ron Paul on Education
Closing underperforming schools? I went to an underperforming school that is still open. It should have been closed years ago. And each year they were raising money to get more "resources" but even with that money there was never any real improvement with the school. The building, books, and curriculum were outdated. Most of the kids didn't give a rats ass about being in school, that's when they weren't cutting school and/or disrupting classes. And the tenured teachers didn't give a rats ass about teaching. The numerous "substitute" teachers basically brought in R rated movies for us to watch instead of you know, teaching. Our standardized testing scores were piss poor. It was literally a zoo at times with all of the fights. Should I go on?
Lack of a graduate degree? Really? Are we really going to make the argument that a graduate degree = competence. Because if we are, I would like to hear your take about what that Harvard MBA did for Bush. Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on the PhDs, but I am willing to give people a chance when they are passionate about their careers and demonstrate competence. From what I have read, he has extensive experience in educational policy and management, genuinely cares about kids, and is non-ideological. He may turn out to be a total disaster, but I am willing to wait and see what happens.
And White privilege? Sorry, but do you know dude personally or something. That critique is below the belt. And I find it ironic that you accuse him of White privilege when it was a Black man, and another Obama friend, John Rogers, that helped him out early in his career.
Without going into too much detail, I will say that I work for CPS. I think generally there are two groups of people. One group from the education prespective (mainly the CTU) who wholly dislike Duncan and his programs and the other in administration (like myself) who do like him or are at least somewhat ambivalent.
There is always the running debate regarding Duncan not having what is seen as the prerequisite degree(s) in education. The question often posed is how could he possibly know how to run a school system? I don't know if I necessarily agree with the theory the ED.d (or Master's) equals qualified. I think it certainly helps give perspective. I am in contact daily with folks with their Doctorates in Education who should not be in charge of running a McDonald's, better yet a school. I think sometimes, it is ok to apply business principles in education settings. What is integral to me is that Duncan is surrounded by others who do have have classroom or other educational experience.
Duncan is the Chief Executive Officer and Barbara Eason Watkins is the Chief Education Officer.
I can go on and on regarding accountability and other issues, but like I said ...
Sounds to me like CPS needs a good vocational/technical school program. Not only could these kids not function in a poor school, but even when transferred to a school they failed to perform there as well. This more or less supports what I've said all along, there's going to be some kids for whom traditional education is not the answer. Trying to educate them anyway will do nothing but destroy the school system. Makes perfectly good sense to do what the rest of the world does and direct those kids to a trade, rather than wait until they trash the school and then drop out.
The corporate world has put the blame for society's woes on schools, when the blame should be placed firmly on policies from which corporations benefit, and have helped to create. Schools are not failing society, rather society is failing schools, and schools can not undo the stratification and inequality that exists in society.
Arne Duncan represents this corporate ideology- an ideology that is detrimental to the health of our public school system, and to the academic and civic development of students.
"Duncan has done nothing to address racial segregation in our schools--which is so bad that a 2003 Harvard University study found that CPS is "only a few percentage points from an experience of total apartheid for Black students." Rather than try to remedy this shameful situation, Duncan requested the removal of the federal judicial consent decree that mandates the meager efforts CPS has undertaken to improve the racial balance of our schools."
://socialistworker.org/2008/12/17/duncans-school-reform-sham
Another *big* beef I have with this guy is that he is for having military recruitment in our schools. Chicago has more recruitment offices in public schools than any other city. It is sick. With unemployment rates of over 40% in some Black areas, what are kids going to do? It's a terrible, terrible set-up to have our youth thrown into the mouth of a lion.
Vanessa:
Could you tell me SPECIFICALLY what about an "All Black School" is inherently inferior to an "All White School"?
You make use of the word "Apartheid " but you clearly fail to understand the power of certain words.
The Black children living in our urban schools and attending majority minority schools are not living in APARTHEID conditions. That is unless you are smitten with the disease that I call "Non-White White Supremacy".
Do you not find it disturbing for you (I assume a Black person) to only require one piece of information ("Is the school all Black") for you to conclude that it is thus an INFERIOR SCHOOL?
I am bothered by why certain Black people emote the theory that sitting in a class next to WHITE KIDS will afford Black kids the ability to learn by some magical process of osmosis. Would a poster of a White kid in each all Black classroom do the trick?
Why is it unconscionable to work to DISTILL THE ESSENTIAL ESSENCE of the "All White School" that you covet and dare to ask "AM I WILLING TO IMPLEMENT THESE SAME STANDARDS, CULTURAL NORMS AND ETHOS in the all Black school that is in my focus so that they too can have success"?
You see Vanessa - you give yourself a mental "out" by claiming that this is all about SCHOOL FUNDING. You and I both know that this is not the case.
Worse yet - some people who hate Blacks and I would dare to say - some Black folks themselves - believe that the White student is superior and thus we see the results.
I dare to argue for the third point that is less popular. The problem with Black schools is that there is an aggregate UNWILLINGNESS to put forth the proper order both inside of the school and with regard to the management of these children to create an environment where ACADEMIC SUCCESS is a more likely outcome.
I credit Atlanta School Superintendent Beverly Hall. She said recently (paraphrased) "I have come to the conclusion a while ago that SCHOOL BUSING is not a valid option as I will ways always have more at risk students than I do quality classrooms to place them in where they will be the minority. Therefore I chose to WORK WITH WHAT I HAVE and raise the standards and my tactics accordingly".
not so shocking: obama choosing yet another white guy from harvard, this time with no advanced degree. as rikyah said, no jd, md, mba, phd...nothing. obama's aversion to black people in his cabinet is stunning. he's got no problem with latinos though (see below), just the 95% of black people that voted for him, apparently. Amazing.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/...
Either you are being willfully misleading or simply not paying attention.
not much else.
there ISNT enough that can be done for you locusts.
you've already absorbed more resources in this failed anthropological experiment than should have been afforded.
Anyways a racist troll...exciting! Its getting YouTube up in here.