Now they've been trying lots of ways to accomplish their aims. But the other day I had an epiphany while reading Myron Miner on the Chicago Public Schools and Producerism. at his blog, Last Stand for Children First.
How dumb have I been. Of course! Minor points out that these guys are just versions of Max Bialystock who in Mel Brooks' The Producers comes to the fundamental understanding that if you raise lots of money for a Broadway play that you spend little on while making sure it bombs, you can walk away with the bundle. Brilliant! And as Minor points out, that is exactly what is happening in the public schools. Make 'em so bad that no one wants to go or teach there and walk away with a bundle for all your privatizing friends.
Thus, when I hear people bewail WalBlackBloomKlein over some of the dumbest decision making ever seen, I admonish them to think MAX and his scheme! They have no intention of improving the schools and in fact are demolishing public ed as an institution so they and their pals can take the money and run,
Ed Deformers are anything but dumb. They actually have a plan that over a quarter century they are executing perfectly.
How long before we see a chorus line led by Dennis Walcott at PEP meetings singing "Springtime for Bloomberg and the Upper East Side."
No, I don't think they give a damn what teachers do. Charters are no place for anyone looking to make a career out of teaching, and this doesn't make them look any better. The idea is to roll back to the 19th century, and they're doing a pretty damn good job of it if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteSmash and grab.
ReplyDeleteEven the mom-and-pop charters' heads will be spinning whenthe city/state/feds go after them, so that billions can be directed toward outsourced, online "instruction" and private school vouchers (which Michelle Rhee, always a good barometer of Evil is now pushing).
I wonder what firms will be making money off this latest debacle-which is the point of most of this anyway. Tisch's bro-in-law at k-12or will it be Kaplan?
ReplyDeleteAlso, can the UFT fight this at all, or is this a done deal in NYC?
The UFT has the machinery to fight this but will they/can they given they opened the door in the first place by agreeing to 20%? Sort of what they tell you when you ask why we can't stop charters and they say we can't win - not about using your machinery to expose the ultimate aim of charters to destroy public schools. Instead they talk about making charters transparent. Or organzing teachers, not fighting charters. Same with this. Rating teachers on tests is out of the barn. They may come back with some middle ground but ultimately it is a loss because they won't really fight it with all the way.
ReplyDeleteAnother aim is to crapify the education in public school so much that it creates a DEMAND for a charter school. They are trying to piss parents off as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteSounds like most of you in this post like "Big Government". Why should the Government control our children's education anyway? Why are Unions so important?
ReplyDeleteIf you can show me that our Government actually has the BEST interests of our children at heart then I will be all for public (Government controlled) education.
In reality, the government are a bunch of elected people who are there in the interest of interest groups. They are not for the people and they are not, for sure, for the best interest of our children. I understand that the "Charter School" system is not the answer either.
So, what should we really do as parents? If all the educational systems are driven by interest groups and none of them have the children's best interest at heart, what are the alternatives?
HOME SCHOOL!!! Yes, I said it, parents have to take control and do what is right, not what the majority wants. The majority does not make things right, they just make things legal.