Accountability starts at the top. Yeah, talking to you, Obama, Bush, Duncan, Bloomberg, Merriman

[Hannah Bell]

The Race To the Top and the Blueprint for Education will not work.

These federal education policies are based on Bloomberg/Klein’s Children First agenda in New York City. Just yesterday, it was shown that the NYC policy of testing madness, closing down schools, firing teachers and opening charters have failed. The educational gains that were so touted, and are now being used as a national model have been proven false. They were the result of grade inflation. New York state had progressively lowered the passing grade year after year...

Now it is known that only 42% of NYC students are proficient in reading (down from 69%). And only 54% are proficient in math (down from 82%). (*And charter schools' scores dropped as much or more than public schools' scores.)

http://www.incongressional.com/accountability-starts-at-the-top/


So after this fiasco, Mayor Bloomberg pooh-poohs the importance of his own testing & ed policies! The ones he used to prove how good mayoral control was & what a success his admin had been!


“Everybody can have their definition of what it means,” he said. Later, he added: “The last time I checked, Lady Gaga is doing fine with just a year of college.”

The President of the NYC Charter School Center James Merriman blames minorities for the drop in charter school scores!

“If you look at African-American and Hispanics citywide and take into account that charters serve 94% African-American and Hispanics, that probably explains it.”

WHERE'S THE ACCOUNTABILITY?


Despite the harm Obama's ed policy has done and the complete lack of evidence that it or its precedents (e.g. Arne's work in Chicago & Bush's NCLB) has done ANYTHING to improve student outcomes -- and the new reports that much-touted "successes" in Chicago, New Orleans, NYC and elsewhere were the product of outright FRAUD, "President Obama stated that he will not budge on changes to Race to the Top by reiterating his pledge to veto any legislation that affects the program’s funding."


WHERE'S THE ACCOUNTABILITY?


ACCOUNTABILITY STARTS AT THE TOP.

UNFORTUNATELY, THE ROT STARTS THERE TOO.

[Hannah Bell]

1. ...kr for my own post. whee!

[bbgrunt]

2. I'll k and r your post and thank you on top of it. This is no longer a land of law.

[leftstreet]

3. "Lady Gaga is doing fine with just a year of college."

OMG tell me I did NOT just read that.

Our esteemed 'officials' are starting to sound like clowns

K&R

[Hannah Bell]

4. kafkaesque. orwellian. you just don't know what to call it anymore.

like a dream you can't believe is real but you just can't wake up.

they're shameless. they don't even pretend they take themselves seriously anymore. the tissue of phoney rationale is paperthin, but it doesn't even matter if it gets torn, they just keep doing what they're doing, because they know no one can get it together to stop them.

[blindpig]

10. 'they know no one can get it together to stop them'

That's got to be it. I've been puzzling over this growing trend of the ruling class and their water carriers lack of attention to the crap they say for a while. It just seems poor politics to be so caviler with public pronouncements and other behavior, maybe contemptuous.

What's missing is real opposition, there is no Left. This is class warfare and no one is fighting for the working class. The Democratic Party, wed as it is to Capitalism, cannot be expected to seriously protect the workers, except in those circumstances where it serves Capital's interests too. That ain't good enough. The Left cannot be associated with capitalists parties, except in limited tactical circumstances. Nothing but a working class mass movement will do, as yet there is nothing of substance. They will continue to treat us like slow-witted children until we 'rock their world'.

[Marr]

12. Yep-- that's a modern "let them eat cake".

[Ignis]

14. That struck me, too.

The talent lottery to get out of crushing poverty: It's not just for sports anymore!

:argh:

[Dinger]

5. K & R!

:thumbsup: :hi: :kick: :patriot:

[Starry Messenger]

6. k & r

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Love that last line!

And the rot is contagious.

[xchrom]

8. Recommend

[Catshrink]

9. Silly, teachers are the only ones held accountable.

Not the parents who don't encourage a positive attitude toward learning, not the students who don't give a flying damn, not the schools who interrupt instructional time for goofy reasons, not "society" and its portrayal of intelligence as wierd, , not the Legislatures for unfunded mandates and goofy laws, and certainly not the Dept. of Ed. sitting on its billions to use as bribes.

We need to get the politicians out of the classroom. They don't understand how children learn but they do know how to help their friends make a buck.

[glitch]

16. More like collective punishment than held accountable.

Their crime: being union.

[YvonneCa]

11. Thanks for posting this...

Hannah Bell. K and R !!! ;)

[Greyhound]

13. K&R

[LWolf]

15. Accountability is only useful as a political tool.

It's not for the politicians themselves.

He "won't budge." I get that. Perhaps that's I'm not budging in my opposition.

[flyarm]

17. K&R thanks Hannah!! eom