I took the liberty to bold some of Diana Schemo's words and my commentary is in parenthesis and/or blue. Please think of my commentary as my sorry attempt at teacher humor, in these 1984 times.
Failing Schools Strain to Meet U.S. Standard
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, The New York Times, October 16, 2007
LOS ANGELES — As the director of high schools in the gang-
infested neighborhoods of the East Side of Los Angeles, Guadalupe Paramo struggles every day with educational
dysfunction.
(there are cockroach and rat infestations. to connect gangs with infested is to equate gangs with cockroaches or rats, which is a very clever neo-con propaganda technique)
(dysfunction means not function, saying every day the school doesn't function, which is a very clever neo-con lie)For the past half-dozen years, not even one in five students at her district’s
teeming high schools has been able to do grade-level math or English. At Abraham Lincoln High School this year, only 7 in 100 students could. At Woodrow Wilson High, only 4 in 100 could.
(I always connected teeming with bacteria. Seems her district is also teeming. I wonder if they want you to think her students are bacteria?)
(my god... "only 7 in 100 students could" and "only 4 in 100 could". How could NCLB have left so many children behind?)For chronically failing schools like these, the No Child Left Behind law, now up for renewal in Congress, prescribes drastic measures: firing teachers and principals, shutting schools
and turning them over to a private firm, a charter operator or the state itself, or a major overhaul in governance.
(Could they be preparing the public to, as they say, "and turning them over to a private firm"? Wait a minute... this is almost starting to sound like what neo-cons did in Iraq? Could they be preparing for an Invasion of PublicSchools? Neo-con intelligence is probably telling them that PublicSchools have dangerous WMIs... Weapons of Mass Instruction.... could that be "teachers"? Could the Invasion have started with NCLB bombs? Will their first order of business be the disbanding of the PublicSchoolTeachers Guard/union?But more than 1,000 of California’s 9,500 schools are
branded chronic failures, and the numbers are growing. Barring revisions in the law, state officials predict that all 6,063 public schools serving poor students will be declared in need of
restructuring by 2014, when the law requires universal proficiency in math and reading.
(branded... isn't that what they do to cows? "chronic failures, and the numbers are growing"... doesn't that sound like a chronic disease that is getting out of hand? Is this some form of mad-cow disease in California schools?)
(when they say "restructuring by 2014", could they mean "privatizing"?)“What are we supposed to do?” Ms. Paramo asked. “Shut down every school?”
(NO, not to worry Mr. and Mrs. Public. Just go back to sleep and let Mr. Government fix this problem. We will let Mr. Wonderful Private Industry fix our bad schools and make all of your children successful (cogs-in-our-machine). Mission Accomplished in New Orleans, Mission Accomplished in Afghanistan, Mission Accomplished in Iraq, and coming soon to a neighborhood near you, Mission Accomplished in PublicSchools.)Email
[email protected] to complain about this article.
Go to www.cta.org for the link to tell your Representative NOT to fund NCLB.