I'm happy for my big brothers and sisters in the world's most powerful teacher's union local, the United Federation of Teachers (AFT) in New York City. They will now be sparred the bleatings of their fearless leader, Michael "Chickenheart" Mulgrew, that "oh, if we don't roll over for Bloomberg and let his high society friend play with the NYCPS, the big bad Michelle Rhee is coming to get us."
Mulgrew, do you have any idea how many genuine labor leaders are turning in their graves over your cravenness? The list is so long even the Old Collaborator Albert Shanker is on it. Hell, Sally Field is ashamed of you and all she ever did was play Norma Rae in a movie. Get up off your knees brother. You know Cathie Black has no business anywhere near the children of working people.
I'm happy because Michelle Rhee hitched her wagon to another political figure like Adrian Fenty. Someone destined for a spectacular crash and burn. Like Michael Bloomberg, Florida Governor-elect Rick Scott bought his electoral victory in November. Like Bloomberg, Scott hires a corps of people to tell him that he's smart. And like Bloomberg, Scott hasn't got a clue. I think Scott wins the booby prize though. You have to try not to laugh at this, ok. Rick Scott says he will layoff 5% of the state's workforce and create 700,000 new jobs, simultaneously! Put that up against not allowing food stamp recipients to buy soda pop! Well, maybe Bloomberg is a bigger loon.
I'm happy because we have battled "the Jeb Bush" in Florida since 1994 and public education is still standing. The Bush Gang makes Michelle Rhee look like the sad little piker that she is. The Florida Commissioner of Absurdity Posed as Education Eric J. Smith enjoys big time status in the Bush, Gates, Broad, Walton, Bloomberg movement. He can manipulate graduation rates and test scores with the best of them. It's going to be fun to watch Smith and Rhee fight over the job.
But I'm happiest I think because my fellow public school workers in Florida don't know much about Michelle Rhee. Some have seen "Waiting For Superman" but those three think Michelle played Lex Luthor's evil twin sister.
I'm anxious to introduce Michelle Rhee to Florida. There's the masking tape over the mouths of Black third-graders in Baltimore and the blood. There's the miraculous rise in those same bloodied student's test scores inside of three years of teaching for which Rhee can provide no proof. There's Rhee's storybook romance with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and her willingness to share his affection with several of the teenage students at his charter school. Or at least cover it up.
Now Florida teachers may get the chance to be entertained with Chancellor Rhee's minstrel show. She does Al Jolson proud! She doesn't blacken her face but she does Black dialect as part of her routine and tells a story of bloodying Black children in a pathetic attempt at classroom management. Rhee's act was a big hit at this year's Washington, DC opening of school meeting.
The new white Teach For America missionary teachers just hooted when Rhee described placing masking tape over her 8-year-old student's mouths in inner-city Baltimore. The new hires seemed to accept this as a proper way to treat the kids. Hey, they're Black right! One wonders how many of these Ivy Leaguers will try Rhee's method on their charges this year. After all the Chancellor never told them she had probably committed a crime. Guess that would have killed the frivolity they were all sharing.
Then in the story of a field trip she botched in her few days of teaching Rhee launches into her imitation of Black speech. "Lawwwd Ms.Rhee whatchu gonna do!!!!??" Rhee boomed, drawing a big laugh. "Lawwwd Ms. Rhee whatchu gonna do!!!!??"
But a transcription doesn't do Michelle's racist comedy justice. You got to listen to it here in case she's ashamed to perform it again here in the Sunshine State.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Welcome to Florida, Michelle. Last stop headed South.
Paul A. Moore
3 comments:
Badda-bing!
Bad girl, bad girl whatcha gonna do when they come for you.
Bad girl, bad girl whatcha gonna do when they come for you.
Mr. Mulgrew is NO chichkenheart, and neither is his madam, randi winegarten, who still calls on him to turn tricks for her in an ongoing series of trysts that promote reform and commercialization of public schools.
If anything, Mulgrew is despearately trying to at least appear as though he's fighting the good fight for his constituency, while all along, he is a collaborator, if not pro-reformer. Ditto for Mr. Richard Ianuzzi over at NYSUT, who has said virtually nothing in public about Bloomberg and his newly initiated gang member, Cathleen Black.
Mr. Mulgrew is but a prop to distract teachers into thinking that there is opposition to the new narrative from the city, state, and federal government. Yet, the prop at this point is getting jaundiced and withered. It will be up to the teachers and general citizenry to see if and how they will increase the forces of a true resistant movement.
But, as I have been saying for years, there must be enough, alas, abject suffering to activate any real motivation for people to get rid of Mr. Mulgrew and get someone in who truly is cut from a different cloth.
I am hopeful about this tipping point, although I am uncomfortably insecure as to when it will occur.
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