Duncan Is It

Arne Duncan has tried to cultivate a middle position but in fact is is Klein lite, as has been pointed out by others. I'm out of the country so can't comment extensively but here are a few so far.- Norm

Hello All,

And so, just as it took a Republican to initiate trade with China, it is taking a Democrat to destroy (what's left of) the teacher's unions and public education.In a perverse way, Klein would have been the better choice, since he's such a polarizing figure, and his appointment might have led to more static. Duncan seems to be smoother, making him more dangerous.Randi, of course, played her part in this, blowing a kiss to Duncan just the other day. Was that the public statement and capitulation - the first of many more to come - Obama was waiting for?

Michael Fiorillo


Teachers in Chicago are sorry to see the CEO of the schools here being promoted.
In the past couple of years Chicago has been turning public schools over to private operators (mainly in the form of charters and contracts) at a rate of about 20/year. The city has also resuscitated some of the worst ideas of the 90's like firing all the teachers in low-performing schools (called 'turn-arounds') while at the same time eliminating many Local School Councils and making school decisions without public input. Charter schools and test-score driven 'choice' have been the watchwords of Duncan's rule in Chicago. Expect more of the same in Washington DC.

But in case anyone is wondering what kind of a person we appear to be getting as Secretary of Education. Duncan is a tool. To me, the thing that made clear Duncan's role came after three months of organizing against the Chicago Board of Education's proposal to install a Naval Academy at our community high school, Senn HS.

After an inspiring campaign that had involved literally hundreds of people in the biggest campaign the area had seen in decades, we forced Duncan to come up to our neighborhood to listen to our case for keeping the military out of our school. Over three hundred of us--parents, teachers, and community supporters held a big meeting in a local church and, at the end of the meeting, we asked Duncan to postpone the decision to put the military school at Senn. Duncan's answer was a classic--he said, 'I come from a Quaker family and I've always been against war. But I'm going to put the Naval Academy in there because it will give people in the community more choices.'

When push came to shove Duncan was always a loyal henchman of the Daley political machine--albeit with a style that made it seem like he was listening and a knack for a sympathetic phrase--the kind of person who will look a t you with a straight face and tell you that, as a person with a Quaker background, he supports a military school, and in a community that is fighting as hard as it can against some Daley-Department of Defense backroom deal, that he is ignoring us because it will give the community more choices.

Jesse Sharkey
Chicago Public Schools Teacher



Editorial: Duncan's agenda and Paul Bremer's

Substance Editorial Staff

Picture Paul Bremer, the erstwhile “viceroy” of Baghdad, only without the boots. You now have Arne Duncan and his troupe of zealots privatizing everything in sight at the Chicago Board of Education and in the “Office of New Schools.” Of course, just as Bremer would have been nothing without George W. Bush and the crazies in the Washington Think Tanks that write the privatization scripts for the world, so Duncan would just be another washed up former professional ball player if Mayor Daley and his corporate buddies weren’t backing his massive privatization plans.

For the past six years, we’ve watched while Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan lied repeatedly to the public about how and why he was closing dozens of public schools. Duncan was not trying to improve public schools in Chicago for all children, but was in command of a ruthless privatization plan that is designed to undermine traditional notions of public education for urban children and replace them with a crackpot version of “market choice” that exists only for the wealthy and the powerful.

The key to Duncan’s ability to get away with the Big Lie, however, is not Duncan’s own eloquence, but the face that he has the backing of Chicago’s ruling class. From the CEOs of the city’s largest corporations (organized into the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club) to the editorial boards of the two power daily newspapers, Duncan’s lies are amplified every day, and except for the pages of this newspaper and a few other places, unchallenged in the public arena where democratic debate is supposed to take place.

After we reviewed the school closings in Chicago since 2001, when Mayor Daley appointed Duncan the second “Chief Executive Officer” in CPS history, the shocking details began to become clear. Not only were poor black children being forced out of their homes (public housing reform, it was called), but they were also being deprived over and over of access to public schools.

Comparing Duncan’s other work with massive privatizers like Paul Bremer (who headed up the Provisional Coalition Authority in Baghdad from 2003 to 2004), any clear-eyed reader can see the same pattern. These guys are not in the business of improving public school, but of stripping the assets from public services and turning unionized public servants into non-union public slaves.

For five years, we have watched thousands of people appear before the corporate stooges who constitute the Chicago Board of Education, trying to talk about what would be best for public schools. Every argument has been eloquent.

But the arguments don’t really matter, because Arne Duncan and the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education are not in the education business, they are in the privatization and charter school business. Once the public understand that, at least people can stop wasting their time talking about what’s best for the education of Chicago’s poorest children. Duncan couldn’t care less about that as long as his crimes — and they are crimes that flow from these lies — don’t make the TV news or interfere with the agenda of his mentor Richard M. Daley.

The Fearless Forecaster Prediction on Darling-Hammond Chances

With the battles swirling around the potential next Education Secretary - for and against the Joel Klein/Michelle Rhee/Arne Duncan, a major attack has been launched on Linda Darling-Hammond, who has been a key advisor on Obama's ed team even though a critic of those media darlings Teach for America. Naturally, the TFA machine is sweating a bit and has been part of the attack on Darling-Hammond.

Some people are optimistic, thinking the D-H critics have gone too far. That Obama will move in her direction. Witness the John Affelt post at Huffington (which I posted at Norms Notes). Affelt opens with this:

A slickly-coordinated string of editorials and columns in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The New Republic, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere has poured forth recently, all decrying the possible appointment of Stanford University Professor Linda Darling-Hammond as Secretary of Education. Obviously responding to the same talking points, the pieces paint Darling-Hammond a status quo, incrementalist and anoint a new group of pro-merit pay/pro-testing/pro-charter school advocates as the hard-charging "reformers."

Darling-Hammond has spent 30 years pushing for a radical restructuring of public schools and the systems that serve them so that all students will have high-quality teachers and rich learning opportunities, not just well-off, predominantly white kids. To call her a defender of the status quo is like calling Lincoln a defender of slavery because he wasn't as absolute in opposition as were some on his team of rivals.

By drawing so heavily from the old playbook, the hard-chargers may have just charged off the cliff--virtually ensuring Obama will be less receptive to their pleas.

So I have borrowed WFAN's Steve Somers' FEARLESS FORECASTER to predict the fate of D-H. Unfortunately, I don't agree with the view that Obama will turn out to be the kind of politician who will pick D-H. He seems to look at how easy it will be to get a person confirmed. And with both Republicans and many Democrats taking a view that D-H is easy on teachers, we can expect quite a battle if Obama chooses her. On the other hand, if he chooses Duncan or Klein or Rhee, there will be screams of protest from educators but not from politicians.

Note: If you read Randi Weingarten's letter to the NY Times (posted at ed notes Dec. 13) you will see she did not put the AFT/UFT in the Darling-Hammond camp at all - which shows how the union lines up as more political than educational. A recent quote is in effect an endorsement of Arne Duncan: “We have no candidate in the race,” Ms. Weingarten said. But last week she publicly praised Mr. Duncan in an interview with The Associated Press. “Arne Duncan,” she said, “actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way.”


FEARLESS says that Obama will go the route of least protest and choose some non-controversial politician who is palatable to all sides. After all, Obama himself has gone both ways on education and left people guessing.

Thus, FEARLESS' prediction is that for Darling-Hammond, becoming Education Secretary is
A LOSS!


Related:
More Speculation on Education Secretary at Norms Notes.

If It's Good For Obama's Kids....

A Place to Respond says:

[Obama] seems to see only dimly if at all how deceptively Orwellian the big-business driven standards and accountability movement is.

Do you think Obama's kids will be tested to death? Would Obama want Michelle Rhee, who he praised, as a Superintendent for his kids? Or Joel Klein?

She links to Gary Stager's superb piece.

The only times I've heard Obama speak about education, he has called for merit pay, increased accountability, praised D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee (check out this fine article about her) In other words, President-Elect Obama (unless I am proven wrong) believes the same BS that drove NCLB and many of the other bad ideas oppressing children and teachers.

Here is an idea for President-Elect Obama...

The $29,000 per year Sidwell Friends School is a fine learning environment and institution with a proud history of excellence. His daughters will be very happy there.

President and First Lady Obama should study everything done at Sidwell Friends School and copy it in every school across America. If it's good enough for his daughters, it's good enough for the children they are leaving behind.

Klein for Ed Secty? Yes, We Had an Impact

NY Times Reporter Elissa Gutman writes about it Klein’s Name Is Floated, and Bloggers Object in the NY Times City Room.

I've had some recent disagreements with Mike Klonsky but this is one hell of a post on the reasons Klein is the worst choice.

I'm glad Gootman found our buddy Woodlass' comment on the Obama web site:

On a blog attached to the Obama campaign’s official Web site, a poster with the handle Woodlass from New York, N.Y., pleaded with President-elect Obama to pass over Mr. Klein, writing:

He hasn’t made schools in this city any better than they had been, because it’s obvious students aren’t doing so well and neither are the teachers. He excluded parents and the rank-and-file from the decision-making process, poured millions into machines to crunch data for no practical purpose, and he neither respects or defends truth.

One of the important points in this outpouring of antagonism to Joel Klein is that so much of it comes from parents. When Klein spokesperson David Cantor said the complaints are from entrenched interests, one parent wrote:

Dear Mr. Cantor,

I am one of the signatories in a recent letter asking President-elect Obama to appoint an education secretary with real experience in education. I am a public school parent in New York City. I'd be interested in knowing what you consider my "entrenched interest in policies that have never worked." My entrenched interest in my child getting a good education?

Yours sincerely,
Ann Kjellberg

Believe me, we're just scratching the surface. Notice there is not one teacher or parent defending Klein. (Time for Bloomberg to get out his checkbook.) Since we focus on teachers, how does the business community view a leader who alienates the entire body expected to implement his policies? In the real corporate world, it is curtains. Maybe that is what happened to Klein in his last job before being pushed out at Bertelsman and into the Chancellor of the (gulp) NYC school system.

Here's the petition if you want to sign. It says educators but parents (as Leonie Haimson says, kids' first teachers) should sign too.
http://www.petitiononline.com/campd227/petition.html

Is the Honeymoon Over? Sniping at Obama from the Left (and Right)

While most people heard news reports that the Republicans were upset at the appointment of war hawk Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, the main gatekeeper to Obama, that's nothing to compare with what is beginning to come from the left. If Obama built his base on being against the war in Iraq how does he make a war hawk the most powerful man in the government?

Progressives are in for some big disappointments. People tell us that after 8 years of Bush, we at least can look forward to somewhat better judges and other appointees and hopefully a better managed government. But the higher the expectations, the bigger the fall. Making Rahm Emanuel the first appointment is not a good omen. (However, I'll soon be posting a positive view from a parent activist in Chicago of the Obama's roles in school reform.)

Stephen Zunes writes at Alternet: Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?

I had really wanted to celebrate Barack Obama's remarkable victory for a day or so before becoming cynical again. I really did.

And yet, less than 24 hours after the first polls closed, the president-elect chose as his chief of staff -- perhaps the most powerful single position in any administration -- Rahm Emanuel, one of the most conservative Democratic members of Congress.

More..

George Schmidt, an Emanuel constituent, passed this on:
11/10/08

To simplify Rahm Emmanuel as a war mongering right wing monster is to do him too much credit. I live in the guy's Congressional District (Illinois 5th). I have heard him brag that he got earmarks to expand Chicago's military high schools (Marine Military Academy dedication in Chicago last October, reported in the November 2007 Substance, available on line at www.substancenews.net). We have heard him try to justify his support of the Goldman Sachs "bailout" plan when every Chicago Congressman opposed it (first iteration).

And we watched him stand beside George W. Bush and Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago on January 7, 2007, as Bush delivered his "anniversary" speech on No Child Left Behind behind a wall of mounted police and snipers in Chicago (Greeley elementary school). Again, as we reported in Substance (January and February 2008, and on line).

What was unique about Emmanuel's contribution to the Bush agenda that day was that Rahm Emmanuel is one of several Chicago Congressmen, and that all of the black ones (Danny Davis, Bobby Rush, Jesse Jackson Junior) and the Puerto Rican one (Luis Gutierrez) were snubbed by Bush and Daley that day so that Rahm could share the stage and limelight of No Child Left Behind with the two men (Daley; Bush) who most pushed the Business Roundtable corporate "school reform" agenda on the USA.

As people have noted, when Rahm Eammnuel left the Clinton administration, he spent a couple of years as an "investment banker" and supposedly "earned" about $16 million. Needless to say, Rahm Emmanuel has never had much in common with this diverse but mostly "middle class" Congressional District he was in. He bought the Congressional Seat by spending ten times more than his opponent (Nancy Kazak) in his first run, and ignored his constituents ever since. On the
Iraq War; on education; on the Goldman - Sachs "bailout", to cite a few examples. For all his resources, our congressman has never been able to generate a majority of his own constitutents to be in favor of the policies he's supported. So he simply ignores us. (Including a phone call and e-mail I sent him after the first "bailout" vote).

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

www.substancenews.net

Joel Klein's reign of destruction by Leonie Haimson

UPDATE:
David B has chipped in.
Maybe there should be a poster in every school.
Click to enlarge.

I posted this must read follow-up to our last De-Kleining America post at Norms Notes.

By the way, many of Leonie's comments on Joel Klein can also be applied to Michelle Rhee and all the other corporate non-educator public ed destroyers.

UPDATE:
David Bloomfield, Brooklyn College education professor (and lawyer) and NYC public school parent sent his thoughts to The Nation- I posted it in the comments section.

De-Kleining America- Updated

You know those scenes in movies where people put their hands over their eyes in horror at an accident that was about to happen?

That is how NYC educators and parents feel since the ugly rumor in the Huffington Post that NYC Chancellor Joel Klein is a possible choice for Education Secretary in the Obama administration. The Ed blogosphere in NYC has been hot and heavy with rumors.

Can you get worse than Margaret Spellings?

Hell Yes. We've been getting emails of this type:

Geez, talk about discouraging news! I just heard that Obama is considering Chan. Klein as Secretary of Education! Does anybody have a way to get the word to him about how most of us feel about the job Klein/Bloomberg have done here?

A Voice Cries Out says, "Ok, ok, stop screaming" and put this up on the advice Joel Klein would give to the nation. Here are a few delicious headings:

Numbers in the toilet? Fudge ‘Em!

Violent Incidents in Schools Getting You Down? Bury ‘Em!

[I especially like this one as it reminds me of a Frankenstein movie - Actually "Young Frankenstein" in honor of the numerous teen principals who have been "made" under Klein.]
Make Your Own Principals

Pack Kids in as Tightly as Possible

Oh the choices we have to make here in the big city. Wish for Klein to go to Washington so he can hang out with his buddy Michelle Rhee? Or do what we can to prevent the Kleining of America?

To me the choice is easy. Despite the UFT attempt to make it seem Mayor Bloomie and Klein are not joined at the hip, things might even get worse if Joel was to go to Washington. Mayor Mike could pick Rhee, who might want to get out of DC before they tar and feather her, to replace Klein. Klein could be US Ed Secty and run the DC schools Rhee has left standing further into the ground. With a financial crisis, think of the savings? But it gets worse.

George Schmidt thinks Obama will go in a different direction:

Here in Chicago, we're reading about how Obama is going to choose Arne Duncan
(Chicago's version of Klein).
Anyone want to bet that in D.C. they're reading about how Michelle Rhee has the inside track? One thing's sure. It's bad.

Obama plays basketball with Arne Duncan. Jeez. The teachers who supported Obama may be in for a shock.

How about real educators like Linda Darling-Hammond?

Or Diane Ravitch, who I disagree with on some fundamentals due to her long-time advocacy of the standards and testing movement, but has been one of the leaders of the De-Kleining battle here in NYC and has been having those wonderful conversations with one of my teaching heroines, Deborah Meier? Diane would represent some sense of rationality and compromise. Besides, many of us have grown very fond of her personally. It was great to see NY Times columnist David Brooks' mention Diane in this context today.

NYC teachers are willing to continue suffering and are taking the high road, starting campaigns to tell the Obama world all about the wonderful world of Klein. Under Assault (Keep Educating Obama) tried to

find a "Contact Us" link on the Obama website to tell him he should under no circumstances consider Joel Klein as his Secretary of Education. The site didn't have a such a link, but it did have something spectacular: an option to create your own blog right in the Obama internet heartland.

So here's the letter I wrote to him this morning via my new blog on my.barackobama.com: "Please don't choose Joel Klein for Sec'y of Education." (Don't choose Weingarten either, by the way.)
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/woodlassnyc/gGgzzN

And things are growing as The Nation is getting involved. NYU Education Professor Bree Picower sent this along to the NYCORE listserve:

Dear Supporters of Public Education,

Many of you have by now heard the rumor that NYC School Chancellor Joel Klein is being considered as Obama's pick for Secretary of Education.
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/31/obamas-secretary-of-educa_n_139775.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/04/AR2008110404573.html).

As people committed to public education, this strikes a hard and fast blow in the euphoria that we have felt since Tuesday. But it's not too late to make our voices heard once again. Let's build on the sense of representation and democracy we have just experienced to send a clear message to the Obama Administration to STOP THE DE-KLEIN of PUBLIC EDUCATION. Community organizations across the New York City and country are teaming up with The Nation to write a communal letter and petition to the Obama Administration on why Klein is a mistake for this position.

This is where we need your help!
Please submit to the Nation a bullet point of a few sentences of why you think Klein's appointment would be a mistake. This should be based on your experience in education as a student, teacher, parent, organizer, etc. If appropriate, include relevant data or citations. Also include your name and affiliation/role.

Particular themes that you could write about:
-issues of community voice and input
-corporate/private interest vs. public interest
-Issues of instruction and curriculum
-particular issues: high stakes testing, military recruitment, school safety policies, special ed, ELL...
-union representation/ treatment
-Issues around race, racism, and representation
-Issues of equity
-transparency and public decision making
-etc.

Please send your submissions to The Nation ASAP at habiba@thenation.com and cc: info@nycore.org
Please also post your submission to the Education Section of Obama's Website at http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/mypolicy.

This article is going online on Monday, so time is of the essence!

Here is what Bree wrote:

Rather than take the advice of educational experts, Chancellor Klein repeatedly championed and implemented policies that support corporate interests and Mayor Bloomberg. For example, in 2004, Bloomberg and Klein ignored the input of parents, teachers and educational experts in their attempt to push through a high stakes third grade testing policy. Despite testimonials from educational experts and community members against this plan, Bloomberg fired and replaced members of their advisory panel that were not going to vote to pass their bill. "Although Mr. Klein said they had resigned, the three panel members said in interviews that they had been tersely dismissed and had intended to vote against the mayor's plan (New York Times, 2004)”. Is this how we want federal education policy handled?
Bree Picower, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, New York University

Lisa North from ICE sent this along:

I am sorry to say that here in NYC you cannot link positive educational reform with the name Chancellor Klein. Dedicated arts moneys in school budgets have been removed and replaced with money for school data inquiry teams. There have been few effective new teaching and learning initiatives or programs since the beginning of Klein's term. Only a massive amount of testing as huge amounts of time and money have been spent on accountability via testing. Do we want large spikes in test scores from teaching to the test OR students educated to be productive members of society? Shouldn't educational reform be about teaching and learning?

Sean Ahern chimed in on ICE-mail:

I think the AFTUFT leadership would look forward to collaborating on the national level with Klein as they have locally for the past eight years.

The UFT/AFT leadership holds a charter membership in the corporate education reform going back to A Nation At Risk in 1982 when Obama was an undergrad and they show no signs of jumping ship now.

Parents and school based educators in NYC who do not share the perspective of the AFT leadership will have to speak out on our own behalf asking that Obama look at the facts not the spin on eight years of "Put Children First".

NYC schools have among the lowest graduation rates, are among the most segregated, have one of the highest rates of teacher turnover, and since 2001 there has been a 40% decline in the number of new Black and Latina educators hired. What about this picture merits a promotion? To the extent that some good things go on in city classrooms is a testament to the determination of the people in the trenches who carry on in spite of Tweed.

Obama said he would listen to the people so let the people speak. What do the Parents Associations, the CEC's, the SLTs, the students, the chapter leaders, the school based Administrators and teachers have to say? This is the time to speak up.

Klein is experienced but so is a used car. Obama should look under the hood before he buys otherwise he may be stuck with a lemon, Remember Bush's first Education Secretary ? How long was it before the truth about the Houston miracle came to light? Two years? I give even less time for the facts about "Put Children First" to emerge. They already have locally. Klein as Education Secretary? Not a change I can believe in .

Peace,
Sean Ahern

I just spoke to a buddy working out of the central beast at Tweed who wants Klein to be nominated.

"Oh, so you can get rid of him," I said?

"No. Because the spot light of a nomination will expose him for his failed policies - the phony grad rates and test scores and complete failures from messed up bus routes to the recent talented and gifted farce." And all the stuff in between.

How much would you give to see Diane Ravitch and Leonie Haimson testifying at a Klein nomination hearing?

Hmmmm! Hold the presses.

Halloween Special: Obama’s Pals Are S-c-a-r-y

The Wave: October 31, 2008
www.rockawave.com

School Scope Column: Halloween Special: Obama’s Pals Are S-c-a-r-y by Norman Scott

Linda/Lisa Debate Educational policy
Before I get into politics, let’s talk education. I watched a webcast of a live debate that took place at Teachers College, Columbia University, between Linda Darling-Hammond, education adviser to Barack Obama, and Lisa Graham Keegan, education adviser to John McCain. I was ready to run up and strangle them both.

Keegan, who headed the Arizona Department of Education and would likely be Education Secretary under McCain, trumpeted the Klein/Sharpton/Michelle Rhee anti-teacher claptrap. It’s not lack of money to reduce class size, but the removal of the “obstacles” –read “teacher contracts” to reform. Unfortunately, Linda was fairly hapless in her responses, especially when she sidestepped Lisa's attempt to pull her into the "Teach for America is wonderful" trap. Linda has been one of the most vociferous critics of the program that parachutes teachers with 8 weeks of training into schools, where all too many TFA teachers stay for their 2-year term and then go off to other careers such as using their “vast” classroom experience to become educational policy makers.

Obama’s praise of Washington DC chancellor Michelle Rhee at one of the debates was disturbing. But Rhee in DC, who comes out of the wonderful world of Joel Klein, is the fair-haired darling of the right, with Democrats quick to jump on board too. Some people find significant differences between McCain and Obama on educational policy. I’m not so sure, but Obama at least has a clue, taking a long-range view of what would work – reaching kids at the earliest age possible and a more realistic use of testing to assess schools within a larger context. And the fact that Darling-Hammond is a key advisor, despite her political toe dance at her debate, is a good thing.

McCain of course wants to expand the privatization of public schools with vouchers and more imposition of the corporate model. How has that concept been working out? McCain signed on to the Klein/Sharpton Educational Equality Project, which at least Obama has refused to do. Why any teacher in NYC who views education as a major voting consideration would even contemplate a vote for McCain is beyond me.

Obama’s Pals
So, I’m reading last week’s Wave and come across an endorsement. For Barack Obama, no less. I’m ready to run down and rescue Editor Howie Schwach, who must be tied and gagged somewhere in the back room to allow this to occur. But not to disappoint. Howie pops up a few pages later with the Acorn/Bill Aires theory of Obama ties to terrorists, voting fraud manipulators and people who have sex with chickens.

Howie spurred me to do my own investigation to check some of the characters Obama has been hanging out with. It’s worse than Howie thought. Much worse. There’s that known war monger Colin Powell, a deserter from the Republican cause. And you know you can’t trust people who hang out with deserters. I even heard Powell disparage the attacks on Obama with the line that all tax policy distributes wealth. Preposterous. Let’s not pay taxes at all. The goal is to have 1% of the people own 99% of the wealth. Not all that long to wait.

Then that well-known socialist/terrorist Warren Buffet, the richest man in the world, is an Obama backer. And there are rumors that one of his best friends, Bill Gates, also supports Obama. Now how these supporters of someone who pals around with terrorists and socialists managed to become the two richest men in the world is beyond me. Don’t they know that Obama is a redistributor of wealth?

The Bank of Norm
Speaking of wealth, I’m getting to love those whacky Marxists at the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. What next? Nationalize the real estate industry? Ooops. That’s already in McCain’s platform to have the Fed buy up all those toxic mortgages.

I want on the gravy train. I was checking my mattress for lumps the other day and found a few bucks. (My mattress is paying more interest than the bank.) I think I’m going to open the “Bank of Norm.” I just need one of those cash infusions they’re handing out in Washington. I think they want to get some preferred stock in exchange for the cash. I just happen to have 200 shares of Education Notes stock left over from the corporation I set up to publish Ed Notes. Now that it’s mostly online, I think I can spare a few shares. It will be fun having the government as a partner.

I’ll be looking for a place for my bank on 116th Street, which has 12 banks for every person in Rockaway - now that's personal banking. How long will it take for that WAMU/JP Morgan Chase merger to take place and that WAMU office to become available ? I’ll be ready to move right in once Paulson comes through with that cash injection.

I think I’ll be pretty easy giving out loans. If you come in wearing any clothes at all, that is enough collateral for me. And you can even keep the clothes. My plan is to use up that cash injection as fast as I can – maybe faster even than AIG – and head on over to ask for more. Paulson won’t want to see another bank default, so I’ll have no problem. Might even head on down south and hold me one of them junkets.

Don’t think I’m just giving out loans at the “Bank of Norm.” I’ll be taking deposits too. I can even save you the step of taking the money out of your mattress. Just bring the entire thing in and I’ll take care of you. You see, I have a side deal with Sleepys. And if things don’t work out? Why I’ll just open me a diner of sorts to replace my bank. Thinking of calling it the “Sunset Diner.”* Pretty catchy, don’t ya think?

The future Bank of Norm

Michael Bloomberg's Velvet Coup
Mugabe? OK, it's an outrageous comparison. Forgive me. Mike Bloomberg would never shut down newspapers or use brutal thugs against dissenters in order to hold onto power. He doesn't have to. He buys them. This is a must read by Tom Robbins in the October 22, 2008 Village Voice

Mucho kudos to Howie Greene for his powerful “Dear Bubby and Zaidy” column in last week’s Wave questioning some of the illogical resistance to Obama by Jews. I posted it on my blogs and on listserves. I hope it goes far and wide.

Look for Norm’s column “Politically Unstable,” commentary on non-educational matters, which will appear occasionally in these pages. Norm writes more of this drivel every day at his blog http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/. Email him at normsco@gmail.com

Note: The Wave has been Rockaway Beach's (in Queens in NYC) community newspaper since 1893. And no, I haven't been writing the column since then.

* For non-Rockawayites, the long time Sunset Diner with spectacular views of the city and the sunsets - duh - was recently replaced by an HSBC bank.

The Next Education Secretary: Another Horror Story?

UPDATE: Buried in this post and the comments section is my comment that Bill Ayres was an anti-union leftist (based on the elitism of the weather underground). Fred Klonsky disputed that. I backed off. Then Michael Fiorillo followed up and nailed Ayres as an arrogant elitist supporter of the Chicago school model of "reform". I'm posting Michael's comment as a stand alone right above this.

Susan Ohanian posted this Cleveland Plain Dealer article dealing with the next Education secretary with this comment:

On education, attention is focused on who McCain, Obama would name education secretary. We know McCain's possibilities are scary and most of Obama's are too. Just enter the names in a 'search'.

Susan has been a major supporter of George Schmidt's struggle against the Chicago 14 years of the mayoral control/corporate model of educational reform. The very same basis of the Educational Equality Project being trumpeted by Al Sharpton, Joel Klein, Mike Bloomberg, and John McCain. Obama hasn't signed onto it but supports some of the thrust.

Remember, his connections with Bill Ayres* was due to serving on an educational commission that has supported this Chicago model.

Underlying much of these "reforms" is removing schools from union influence (closing schools, creating charters, forced school choice that destroys neighborhood schools, etc., etc.) The two Chicago Superintendents in all these years have been Paul Vallas (failure in Philly and now heading the New Orleans mess that resulted in firing just about every union teacher) and former pro basketball player Arne Duncan whose mom had influence.

So I'm scratching my head over these excerpts from the Plain Dealer:

In a city where so much works well, Chicago's public schools seem to have improved little since the days a decade ago when Obama headed a philanthropic drive here that spent $150 million but did little to improve the educational opportunities for the city's children.

And don't forget Chicago schools CEO Arne Duncan [for Ed Secty], a friend and adviser with whom Obama often plays basketball. Obama recently accompanied Duncan on a visit to Dodge Renaissance Academy...

You mean the same Obama's buddy Arne Duncan who has been in charge of a school system that is still failing under mayoral control after all these years?

In spite of the dismay people involved with education in NYC at all levels feel about the prospect of another 4 years of BloomKlein, one of the positives will be the loss of their legacy as having improved the schools as the number of better performing kids are wrung out of the system and into charter schools. What happens when most of the large large high schools are closed and there are few union rules left, if any and there's no one to blame? There's only so much manipulation of statistics and phony grad rates they can squeeze out. Kids who were in the 1st grade when they took over will supposedly be graduating from high school in 2013. If researchers explore this cohort they will discover the true horrors of the BloomKlein years when many of these high school "graduates" will find themselves in remedial college programs and the very same business community that supports Bloomberg with such fervor will find their potential hires with as few real skills as they had 12 years ago.

See Manhattan Panel for Educational Policy (Bloomberg's illegal renaming of the Board of Education) Patrick Sullivan, the only BloomKlein critic, outline what he sees for a Bloomberg 3rd term at the NYC Public School Parents blog.

Oh, there's one more nugget in the Plain Dealer article:

"Now you have an interesting array of people whom you can't really characterize," [Randi] Weingarten said. "You have to talk in shades of gray. Things never get implemented in education when you talk about litmus tests." That's why Weingarten is spending every weekend on the road campaigning for a guy who talks about performance pay.


*Bill Ayres [probably one of those anti-teacher union lefties- I jumped the gun on this one - see Fred Klonsky comment and my reply. I took some license here based on some of the attacks I've seen on teachers by the so-called progressive left. I accept Fred's point of view.]

Commentary on the Keegan/Darling-Hammond Debate

I'm glad Sean Ahern joined me (two older guys in a sea of 20-somethings) at the Linda/Lisa Obama/McCain ed advisor debate webcast sponsored by NYCORE at NYU last night.

The actual debate was at Teachers College a few miles north. Glad it was as I was ready to run up and strangle them both. Lisa and her trumpeting of the Klein/Sharpton/Rhee EEP's was despicable. But Linda was fairly hapless in her responses, especially when she sidestepped Lisa's attempt to pull her into the "TFA is wonderful" trap. The host of the NYU session, Bree Picower, pointed to the NYCORE focus this year on making the Neo-liberal connections to the ed debate. Lois Weiner has written extensively on this and was the featured speaker at one of our Teachers Unite forums last year and she will be doing a session with Meghan Behrent (TJC and ISO) at an upcoming forum. Sean nails many of the points that were nagging at me during the debate. But first a few caveats. I am guessing the term "liberal" Sean uses more commonly refers to Democratic Party liberals, often misnamed as "the left," which is not the real left, who are just as disparaging of this group as Republicans. Neo-liberals in the classic European sense, so aptly dealt with by Naomi Klein in "The Shock Doctrine" are total free marketers and just off the edge of neo-conservatives. The neo-liberal world wide agenda with respect to education is not just esoteric stuff we're spouting but has a direct impact on what is going on in your classrooms. Understanding this stuff becomes increasingly important to explain the role unions like the AFT/UFT and NEA play in this scenario, all too often lining up on the wrong side.

Heeeeere's Sean

The achievement gap was trotted out early on as the games began. Which team would control the ball? True to form Lisa positioned herself behind NCLB and the "civil rights community" who supported uniform assessments. (Test score inequality is now the only form of inequality considered legitamate for media attention, that is unless poor Black and Latino homeowners are being blamed for the financial crisis)

Linda pooh poohed the notion of filling in bubble sheets. Lisa quickly turned the tables on the liberals. All those flaky alternative assessments are just liberal glosses over the gap, and it's the gap (stupid!) that needs to be reduced. Will the liberals be hoisted on their own petard? Pre-school education for all countered Linda bravely. Lisa countered, where's the evidence supporting the additional $ for pre-school? Where are the test scores! Show me the money. in neo liberal neo conservative America, test scores are equated as proof of value added or value lost. Finally, corporate cost accounting has landed on the head of the educrat nincompoops. Everyone can see how well corporate accounting has served the nation, why not extend it to education?

Linda countered but tepidly, pointing to the success of NJ which lead the way in school funding reform, granting equal state funding to all schools in the Garden State. She only stuck a toe in this big pond. Why not take a dive in?

My question, How can the 'achievement gap be reduced when the wealth gap and the race gap widens? Why are educators heeding, in effect, Cheney's favorite injunction to "stay in their lane" and not making connections? Linda Darling Hammond barely acknowledged the connection in her reference to NJ. Isn't making connections what educators are supposed to do ? And if the leaders of education won't make the connections, then who will?

Lisa lined up with Rhee in DC and NYC with thinly veiled union bashing, but no mention of Chicago's much longer 'reform 'effort? Why?

Could it be that Bill Ayers might come up as one of the proponents of Chicago's reform? Oops, that's not part of the script since McCain is using Ayers to bash Obama. But before all the liberals line up to defend Ayers supposed redemption through educational service, think twice. Ayers was wrong about the "Revolution" in 1968, and yes folks, he's wrong again about school "reform" in Chicago. Like Mr Magoo, Ayers makes a mess of everything wherever he goes but always comes out on top and always manages to be the center of media attention. Are we being played again by a media show that features false leaders, pushes them forward as the change agents, thereby discrediting change or even revolution in society and in education?

Peace,
Sean