Washington Post ed board says enough is enough in Virginia: “Codifying different expectations for different students is bad policy and practice. Federal education officials, who rejected Virginia’s original application for the waiver, would do well to send state officials back to the drawing board.”
Wall Street Journal ed board goes heavy on parent trigger action in California, “echos of Faubus…”
New report from Mind Trust spin-off CEE – Trust on city-based ed reform strategies (pdf).
Reactions to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s speech last night are mixed but one thing is for sure – better speechwriters:
Bob Dole 1996 acceptance speech for Republican nomination: “And I say this, I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions. I say this, if education were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it would be dying.”
Chris Christie 2012 Republican convention keynote: “They believe in teachers’ unions . We believe in teachers.”
Some parents claimed they were mislead by the trigger advocates and withdrew their votes after the fact.
The solution is very simple.
In light of election abuses, repeat the vote.
Let REAL CHOICE ring throughout that district.
Children are right now being denied education due to the inability of adults to act like adults.
Repeat the election. Let CHOICE reign supreme.
Now, we believe that the majority of teachers in America
know our system must be reformed, to put students first so that
America can compete, that teachers don’t teach to become rich or
famous. They teach because they love children.
(APPLAUSE)
We believe — we believe we should honor and reward the
good ones, while doing what’s best for our nation’s future,
demanding accountability, demanding higher standards, and
demanding the best teacher in every classroom in America.
Para 1: Disconnect. No one in the private sector works out of love. They work out of self-interest and incentives. At least that is what the RNC platform says. Why are teachers not allowed the SAME rational conduct?
Disconnect: How is it natural for someone to “love” someone else’s children. That sounds like “we are a village”. Heck, I DID NOT love my enlisted sailors. I DID respect them.
Disconnect: If teachers are to “love” children then how do you measure that? If it’s with test scores and complete accountability then there is no way to avoid the unavoidable consequence: Students become investments that generate a return ( income) for teachers. THAT is rational conduct.
Disconnect: Teachers did not choose their profession to become rich. That is quite obvious. Their pay and benefits will NEVER DO THAT. But that does not justify the new compensation plans to make the financial risk of teaching far outweigh the benefits.
If love and social service and duty are the metrics, then our teachers are nuns. And nuns never faced accountability metrics.
Edu-reforms that deny teachers the right of rationality and independence will lead to failure under all circumstances.
And the very sad fact, and the very frightening one for this country’s future, is that Christie will NEVER be held accountable for his decisions. He can walk away from it with his pension, his juicy pay, and health care benefits.
Is it possible that politics is a lucrative career and that the incentive of the remuneration draws exactly the wrong kind of people. And that our votes have become useless? Is the vote an ineffective way to hold our leaders accountable?
Bill: Good points – good job highlighting the ‘disconnects’ b/c politicians’ oratory and reality.