L.A. TIMES SANDY BANKS - REPORTER OR SHILL FOR LAUSD, BROAD & GATES, AND THE PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION? YOU DECIDE
(Mensaje se repite en Español)
Sandy Banks of the Los Angeles Times is too smart to mistakenly continue to concoct one-sided feel good articles that completely ignore anything but a "dominant narrative" that blames seasoned teachers for a long-failed public education system in a traditionally top-down LAUSD model that teachers have never had any ability to change. After reading our little email exchanges and the articles she wrote, are any of the issues I addressed ever addressed? Is this just an oversight?
It is worth noting that after contacting me to seek my input, she ultimately never followed up on any of the issues I raised. It is also interesting that she cites in her defense to my initial email response the reporter's ideal of getting a scoop without every acknowledging that there is a filter on what she and other reporters at the L.A.Times and elsewhere in commercial and public media are allowed to report...if they expect to keep their jobs. In what profession other than teaching would you prefer a novice to a seasoned professional?- unless you didn't consider what teachers do to be a profession. Ms. Banks and her colleagues have no small part in disseminating this false message.
A while back, Ms. Banks approached me at the behest of teacher Paula Hurdle to get my take on what was causing the enmity between veteran teachers and the glorified novice teachers being hired to replace them for what I believe to be the exclusive motives of saving money and the dumbing down of American public