Louisiana State's Moral and Legal Obligations to Children!
Statement by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers which I totally agree with.
Tragic and unnecessary
POLITICS AND POLICY: IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES?
(Baton Rouge - July 18, 2014) The political feud between Gov. Bobby Jindal and Superintendent of Education John White must be resolved quickly so that teachers and their students can get down to the work of education, Louisiana Federation of Teachers President Steve Monaghan said today.“The state has had since 2010 to discuss standards, to develop curricula and to design assessment tools,” Monaghan said. “That was when Governor Jindal and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education signed on in full to Common Core standards.
“But instead of preparing teachers and children,” he said, “our state set sail on an educational misadventure of faux reforms that disrespected our constitution, vilified teachers, siphoned funds from already underfunded public schools, and resulted in endless legal battles. Political ideology masqueraded as educational reform.”
Those distractions made it impossible to have honest discussions regarding the standards, Monaghan said. The failure to fully inform and adequately prepare led to the inevitable botched implementation of the new standards and associated assessments.
“While there is plenty of blame to be shared, none of it belongs to teachers or their students,” Monaghan noted. “They are the victims of wasted time and wasted funds.”
Perhaps the hiatus in testing resulting from Jindal and White’s confrontation can be the silver lining in the cloud hanging over public education in the state, Monaghan said.
“We now recognize the error of emphasizing the testing of children over teaching them,” he said. “We have an opportunity to make education learning-centered instead of testing-centered.”
“With just weeks left before schools open, now is the time for statesmen to step forward and give public education a badly needed Geaux Teacher!: Louisiana State's Moral and Legal Obligations to Children!: