The Obama Administration- and the Democratic Party's- War On Teachers:
One of the most disturbing legacies of the Obama Administration's 7 years in office, which it shows every sign of continuing through its nomination of John King to be Secretary of Education, has been its war on the nation's public school teachers and on public education generally.
The President hit the ground running with this attack by appointing Arne Duncan, someone with no teaching experience, as Secretary of Education and set the tone for his Administration, shortly after his election, by praising the mass firing of teachers in Central Falls Rhode Island who refused to agree to dramatic modifications of their contract to lengthen the school day.
The attack escalated with the unveiling of Race to the Top, which gave huge grants to states who rated teachers on the basis of student test schools, closed schools designated as "failing"- also on the basis of test scores- and gave preference to charter schools over public schools. It was reaffirmed in subsequent years by the enthusiastic support given by the US Department of Education for the Common Core Standards- which were created with little teacher input, by the Admistration's grants to Teach for America and celebration of "National Charter School Week," and by the systematic exclusion of teachers by education policy bodies created by the administration
Worse yet, Administration's spokesperson in this area, Arne Duncan, took every possible opportunity to attack the nation's public school teachers as poorly trained, poorly qualified and in dire need of With A Brooklyn Accent: The Obama Administration- and the Democratic Party's- War On Teachers::
