The war on teachers: Why the public is watching it happen

[Better Believe It]

The war on teachers: Why the public is watching it happen
By Mark Naison
This was written by Mark Naison, professor of African and African American Studies at Fordham University in New York and chair of the department of African and African-American Studies. He is also co-director of the Urban Studies Program, African-American History 20th Century.
March 12, 2012

All over the nation, teachers are under attack. Politicians of both parties, in every state, have blamed teachers and their unions for the nation’s low standing on international tests and our nation’s inability to create the educated labor force our economy needs.

Mass firings of teachers in so-called failing schools have taken place in municipalities throughout the nation and some states have made a public ritual of humiliating teachers. In Los Angeles and New York, teacher ratings based on student standardized test scores — said by many to be inaccurate — have been published by the press. As a result, great teachers have been labeled as incompetent and some are leaving the profession. A new study showed that teachers’ job satisfaction has plummeted in recent years.

Big budget films such as Bad Teacher and the documentary Waiting for Superman popularize the idea that public school teachers prevent poor children of color from getting a good education, while corporate funded organizations perpetuate the idea that the only way for children to excel is if their teachers lose their job security and bargaining rights.

Why has this campaign attracted such strong bipartisan support and why has the public failed to speak out loudly against it?

Read the full article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/the-war-on-teachers-why-the-public-is-watching-it-happen/2012/03/11/gIQAD3XH6R_blog.html

[Starry Messenger]

1. k&r

[xchrom]

2. Du rec. Nt

[girl gone mad]

3. k & r

[MadHound]

4. One quibble with this,

The notion that teachers are well paid. In the vast majority of cases and places they aren't, and never have been. But somehow the public has been sold on the idea that teaching is some sort of pathway to riches. It isn't, and never has been.

[sabrina 1]

5. Because the plan is to privatize education and apparently both parties are on board now

with the rightwing goal of handing over all public funds, Health Care, Education and Military, to private hands.

If there is 'collateral damage' then too bad. People do not matter when so much money is at stake.

Bush tried to do this, but when his SOE insulted the Teacher's Union, the Left went wild and they were forced to issue an apology.

Now that it's being done by Democrats, there silence is deafening.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The ending matters

That kind of solidarity, for the most part, is gone now. If American workers are ever going to regain their fair share of national income and win back respect on and off the jobs, it is something they are going to have to re-learn. The Occupy Movement has brought back the idea of solidarity with its image of “the 99 percent fighting the 1 Percent,” but this idea has not yet spread fast enough to stop the war on teachers.

There are, though, signs of hope. In Chicago and New York, Occupy groups are uniting with teachers, parents and students to fight school closings; in New York, parents groups have rallied to the defense of teachers stigmatized by the publication of outrageously inaccurate teacher ratings; in Florida, a pernicious “parent trigger” law favoring charter schools was just defeated in the legislature with a big push from parents.

This is a point I have made in the past. Occupy is the first steps onto class solidarity. This is why it scares the elites.