Stand for Children Does Not Stand for Public Education
Stand for Children has moved its campaign for privatization and against experienced teachers to Massachusetts. Stand’s politically savvy, well-connected, and well-funded leader Jonah Edelman threatened ananti-teacher ballot initiative unless the unions negotiated away their seniority and tenure.
Governor Deval Patrick agreed with Stand for Children that teacher evaluation (based to some extent on standardized test scores of students, which is a wholly unproven measure of teacher quality) will outweigh experience.
Stand for Children believes that experience is unnecessary in teaching. Like Michelle Rhee’s Students First, Stand for Children holds that inexperienced teachers are just as good if not better than experienced teachers. Stand threatened a ballot initiative, backed by millions of dollars in spending, to destroy teachers’ seniority and tenure. The Massachusetts Teachers Association could not match the spending of the hedge fund managers
Governor Deval Patrick agreed with Stand for Children that teacher evaluation (based to some extent on standardized test scores of students, which is a wholly unproven measure of teacher quality) will outweigh experience.
Stand for Children believes that experience is unnecessary in teaching. Like Michelle Rhee’s Students First, Stand for Children holds that inexperienced teachers are just as good if not better than experienced teachers. Stand threatened a ballot initiative, backed by millions of dollars in spending, to destroy teachers’ seniority and tenure. The Massachusetts Teachers Association could not match the spending of the hedge fund managers
A Note to Readers of This Blog
Dear Friends,
One of the readers of this blog told me that I should space the entries. Typically, my cat wakes me at 5 am and I start writing and posting, sometimes four or five blogs. The reader said that his tendency was to read the last one first, missing some of the earlier ones. He suggested that I time them to appear every hour or two hours.
So today I am initiating that experiment. I am learning as I go. I just learned how to time the publication of blogs.
One of the readers of this blog told me that I should space the entries. Typically, my cat wakes me at 5 am and I start writing and posting, sometimes four or five blogs. The reader said that his tendency was to read the last one first, missing some of the earlier ones. He suggested that I time them to appear every hour or two hours.
So today I am initiating that experiment. I am learning as I go. I just learned how to time the publication of blogs.
Welcome to Readers Overseas
I don’t know if the term “overseas” is factually accurate, since some of the people reading this blog are part of the same continent as New York City, where I live.
But I wanted to express my appreciation to readers in other countries who are logging on to read the blog:
Most readers, of course, are in the U.S. Next in number are readers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Thank you to readers in Thailand, India, Israel, Haiti, Mexico, Finland, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, Italy, France, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Noway, Argentina, Philippines,
But I wanted to express my appreciation to readers in other countries who are logging on to read the blog:
Most readers, of course, are in the U.S. Next in number are readers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
Thank you to readers in Thailand, India, Israel, Haiti, Mexico, Finland, Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, the Republic of Korea, Turkey, Italy, France, Brazil, the Russian Federation, Noway, Argentina, Philippines,
What If the Chicago Teachers Union Loses?
A reader asked an important question in response to my blog about the Chicago Teachers Union decision to authorize a strike: What if they strike and they lose? What if Mayor Emanuel fires them all and replaces them with TFA? Won’t it prove that striking is futile? Won’t unions everywhere lose heart?
I responded that the mayor might prevail. He might keep the schools closed and hammer the union into submission. Could he replace 25,000 striking teachers with scabs? There are not enough TFA teachers minted every year to do that (TFA sends out fewer than 10,000 per year). Even if he did hire TFA, he would have a completely green workforce with constant turnover. I wonder how TFA corps members would feel about being used as strike breakers.
Emanuel could surely fill the empty jobs with teachers who have been fired or laid off elsewhere. There is a large
I responded that the mayor might prevail. He might keep the schools closed and hammer the union into submission. Could he replace 25,000 striking teachers with scabs? There are not enough TFA teachers minted every year to do that (TFA sends out fewer than 10,000 per year). Even if he did hire TFA, he would have a completely green workforce with constant turnover. I wonder how TFA corps members would feel about being used as strike breakers.
Emanuel could surely fill the empty jobs with teachers who have been fired or laid off elsewhere. There is a large
Brookings Responds to My Blog about Being Terminated
On Monday, I posted a blog called “The Day I Was Terminated.”
In that blog, I recounted that I received an email on June 5 from Grover (Russ) Whitehurst of Brookings telling me that I was being terminated–after a 19-year association with Brookings–because I was “inactive.” That’s a pretty abrupt way to finish off a 19-year affiliation.
My first thought was that the termination might be related to my pointed criticism of Mitt Romney; Whitehurst is an advisor to the Romney campaign. I then went on to admit that I might be over-reacting by assuming a political motivation. As you will see in Brookings’ response, the decision was made in April, before I blogged about
In that blog, I recounted that I received an email on June 5 from Grover (Russ) Whitehurst of Brookings telling me that I was being terminated–after a 19-year association with Brookings–because I was “inactive.” That’s a pretty abrupt way to finish off a 19-year affiliation.
My first thought was that the termination might be related to my pointed criticism of Mitt Romney; Whitehurst is an advisor to the Romney campaign. I then went on to admit that I might be over-reacting by assuming a political motivation. As you will see in Brookings’ response, the decision was made in April, before I blogged about