The demeaning of public education began under Reagan. It has worked well.

[madfloridian]

First a look at Ronald Reagan's attitude toward higher learning, the students, and education in general.

The Educational Legacy of Ronald Reagan

As governor of California:

And he certainly did not let up on the criticisms of campus protestors that had aided his election. Mr. Reagan's denunciations of student protesters were both frequent and particularly venomous. He called protesting students "brats," "freaks," and "cowardly fascists." And when it came to "restoring order" on unruly campuses he observed, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement!"

Several days later four Kent State students were shot to death. In the aftermath of this tragedy Mr. Reagan declared his remark was only a "figure of speech." He added that anyone who was upset by it was "neurotic." One wonders if this reveals him as a demagogue or merely unfeeling. Governor Reagan not only slashed spending on higher education. Throughout his tenure as governor Mr. Reagan consistently and effectively opposed additional funding for basic education. This led to painful increases in local taxes and the deterioration of California's public schools. Los Angeles voters got so fed up picking up the slack that on five separate occasions they refused to support any further increases in local school taxes. The consequent under-funding resulted in overcrowded classrooms, ancient worn-out textbooks, crumbling buildings and badly demoralized teachers. Ultimately half of the Los Angeles Unified School District's teachers walked off the job to protest conditions in their schools. Mr. Reagan was unmoved.

More from that article:

In California Mr. Reagan had made political hay by heaping scorn on college students and their professors. As President his administration's repeatedly issued or encouraged uncommonly bitter denunciations of public education. William Bennett, the President's demagogic Secretary of Education, took the lead in this. He toured the nation making unprecedented and unprincipled attacks on most aspects of public education including teacher certification, teacher's unions and the "multi-layered, self-perpetuating, bureaucracy of administrators that weighs down most school systems." "The Blob" was what Bennett dismissively called them.

Three years into his first term Mr. Reagan's criticism of public education reached a crescendo when he hand picked a "blue ribbon" commission that wrote a remarkably critical and far-reaching denunciation of public education. Called "A Nation At Risk," this document charged that the US risked losing the economic competition among nations due to a "... rising tide of (educational) mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people." (The commissioners did not consider the possibility that US firms were uncompetitive because of corporate mismanagement, greed and short sightedness.)After "A Nation At Risk" the nation's public schools were fair game for every ambitious politician or self-important business boss in the country. Its publication prompted a flood of follow-up criticism of public education as "blue ribbon" and "high level" national commissions plus literally hundreds of state panels wrote a flood of reform reports. Most presupposed that the charges made by Mr. Reagan's handpicked panel were true. Oddly though, throughout this entire clamor, parental confidence in the school's their children attended remained remarkably high. Meanwhile Mr. Reagan was quietly halving federal aid to education.

That sums up Mr. Reagan's educational legacy. As governor and president he demagogically fanned discontent with public education, then made political hay of it. As governor and president he bashed educators and slashed education spending while professing to valued it. And as governor and president he left the nation's educators dispirited and demoralized.

There was a reason he was so critical of public education, pushing his rhetoric to the limits. His goal was to privatize government, and education was no exception.

He did not get what he wanted, but he started the ball rolling for those who came after him....Republicans and Democrats alike. We got steamrolled by the Republican Propaganda Machine and never really knew what hit us.

Many here do not remember Ronald Reagan and his push to privatize government. It is noticeable here that so many people honestly do not understand the value of the traditional public education in our country. A little about Reagan's terrible influence on public schools and their teachers, his influence in harming the union movement, and the secretive way he turned government over to corporations.

Not surprisingly this is from a Nader website in 1987.

Sobering Lessons on 'Privatization' Seem to Elude Reagan

This year Reagan's "privatization" dogmas will be in the news. For a long time Reagan has wanted to sell off much of the federal lands out west; he would like to see prisons owned and run by private corporations. Last month the Reaganites proposed to sell the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to private business. None of these ideologies got very far. In fact the FHA sell-off urge was quickly dropped by Reagan after a torrent of protest from the housing and banking industries themselves.

Undaunted, a few days later the Reagan Budget Office let it be known that four public power authorities in the West, including the Bonneville Power Administration, were heading for the sales block. Millions of people and thousand of businesses receive hydro-electric power from these agencies. The Naval oil reserve in California -- established decades ago for national emergencies -- is also to be put up for sale.

..."Reagan believes that private enterprise con do the job better, more efficiently and without taxpayer subsidy. Has he (not) read of the wasteful boondoggles and practices of private utilities? Are there no sobering lessons from the Defense Departments long-time "privatization" of military contracting for weapons, ships, vehicles and planes? What are the efficiencies of huge cost over-runs, weapons that are defective, $450 for a simple claw hammer or $650 for toilet seat covers?

..."Reagan even is letting profit-making corporations operate the satellites, built by the taxpayer, that record and map the world including where minerals and underground water may he located. How accessible and how promptly public are all of these data to the people?...."The Reagan regime is pushing for privatization of public services and public investments without holding public hearings and consulting with the directly affected persons."

President Reagan appointed a Commission on Privatization.

From the New York Times in 1987.

Commission on Privatization

President Reagan today appointed a commission to study ways Government functions can be turned over to private business.

Prof. David F. Linowes, a political economist at the University of Illinois, was named chairman of the President's Commission on Privatization, and said the 12-member panel's mandate ''is very broad.'' It will ''probe the entire dimension of Government operations'' and offer recommendations in six months, he said.

Mr. Reagan, vacationing at his ranch near here, issued a statement saying the commission would help him ''end unfair Government competition and return Government programs and assets to the American people.''

..."Professor Linowes, speaking to reporters here, said he could not predict what the commission might recommend. But he indicated that likely targets of study included Federal low-income housing projects. The Government has already given some prospective tenants vouchers to pay for low-income housing of their choice, rather than building new Federal housing units. A similar Administration idea, to distribute education vouchers so parents can send children to the school of their choice, has gone nowhere.

These ideas of using public taxpayer money to send children to private schools has gone far in Florida under Jeb Bush. Reagan started the ball rolling, and the right wing has not stopped fighting to bring corporations into the schools.

Now to the humiliating ways of Reagan toward education. He truly started the demeaning of public education and public school teachers with the report The Nation at Risk.

Education at Risk: Fallout from a Flawed Report

Nearly a quarter century ago, "A Nation at Risk" hit our schools like a brick dropped from a penthouse window. One problem: The landmark document that still shapes our national debate on education was misquoted, misinterpreted, and often dead wrong.

..."In short, it's never really a choice between supporting or rejecting school reform. It is, or should be, a choice between this reform and that reform. Yet today, a movement that stretches back several decades has narrowed us down to a single set of take-'em-or-leave-'em initiatives. How did this happen? Well, it didn't "just happen." What we now call school reform isn't the product of a gradual consensus emerging among educators about how kids learn; it's a political movement that grew out of one seed planted in 1983. I became aware of this fact some years ago, when I started writing about education issues and found that every reform initiative I read about -- standards, testing, whatever -- referred me back to a seminal text entitled "A Nation at Risk." Naturally, I assumed this bible of school reform was a scientific research study full of charts and data that proved something. Yet when I finally looked it up, I found a thirty-page political document issued by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, a group convened by Ronald Reagan's secretary of education, Terrell Bell.

That report that began the degrading treatment of the public school system was the product of a committee with an agenda.

The whole nation took this report as the voice of God, and it was splashed all over the media. It became the national agenda.

Reporters fell on the report like a pack of hungry dogs. The next day, "A Nation at Risk" made the front pages.

Once launched, the report, which warned of "a rising level of mediocrity," took off like wildfire. During the next month, the Washington Post alone ran some two dozen stories about it, and the buzz kept spreading. Although Reagan counselor (and, later, attorney general) Edwin Meese III urged him to reject the report because it undermined the president's basic education agenda -- to get government out of education -- White House advisers Jim Baker and Michael Deaver argued that "A Nation at Risk" provided good campaign fodder.

I was teaching in public school when this happened. We were completely puzzled as to why teachers were suddenly being subjected to such negative publicity. Little did we understand that a massive agenda was in play.

You can not destroy something so basic and important as America's public education unless you first demean and marginalize it. Education had been one of the few areas which had not been grabbed up by corporate greed.

They had to do lessen public confidence before they could get what they wanted....the privatization of public education.

[madfloridian]

1. Oh, gee, thanks for the unrec. That just made my evening.

:shrug:

[Jakes Progress]

11. There are those here

who have bought the neo-con anti-teacher meme and who have tried to slam teachers and unions on these threads before. They embarrass themselves with their blatant trumpeting of right wing propaganda and get shown up for what pawns they are. They dare not try to post anymore since they know they have no facts or reasoning to support their blindness, so they just unrec any thread that talks about the attack on education. Screw them. The unrec feature is just dumb.

Cowards all.

[Dinger]

45. I Agree With You JP (nt)

[indepat]

57. Agree: give freeper-types no voice

:D

[pnorman]

13. From its very beginning, I was puzzled at the alleged "benefits" of that new feature.

But I'm beginning to regard it not only as useless, but downright disruptive of amity here. THANKS for this posting! I not only Google-bookmarked it, but gave it a recommend!

pnorman

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. Too many teacher haters here

[Enthusiast]

50. Stealth Republicans.

They are here in big numbers with the sole purpose of unrec good OPs and confusing the discussion.

[nxylas]

105. Coupled with well-meaning but dim liberal parents

The ones who let their kids run riot for fear of "stifling their creativity" and hate any teacher who refuses to do the same.

[glitch]

79. Nevermind, we significantly outnumber them. Nice OP, K & R #142 :) nt

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Beautiful, the un rec trolls are out tonight.

I evened you up.

Let's get this straight.

Ronald Reagan was a piece of shit.
I like his son however.
The smart one.

kicked...

[madfloridian]

3. Yes to both. His son is smart, and unrecs are blossoming.

:hi:

[Dinger]

46. I Unrec'd The Unrecs

Which means I gave it a rec.:)

[Enthusiast]

51. Saint Ronald of the stupid? nt

[depakid]

4. Reagan did for ignorance what Bush did for dishonesty

They've both become well established values in America- and are fueling its decline to third world status.

[madfloridian]

5. Well stated.

Our party in many ways is continuing those "values."

[MajorChode]

26. Raygun was just as dishonest, but a better actor

Furthermore much of his ignorance and seemingly willful stupidity can at least be partially explained by dementia. It's hard to imagine such an excuse for Shrub.

[omega minimo]

47. What Reagan did for ignorance and dishonesty made Bush possible

:evilfrown:




I assume you mean Bush the Second. His Poppy got the ball rolling........... with Reagan. :thumbsdown:

[Enthusiast]

52. You are exactly correct.

Since Reagan we have come to almost celebrate ignorance as a kind of virtue. And now, after Bush, corruption seems to be the natural state of things.

[depakid]

82. There was a time during the 90's that I thought the world wide web might help turn that around

Now it's clear that it's doing more than regressing society (and groups in society) to the mean, but is reinforcing the trend and fueling the race toward the lowest common denominator.

[Nay]

116. Agreed. The same thing is happening with the internet as happened with TV--

both media are being used to bring the level of discourse to ever newer lows. TV made complicated issues "boring" and pushed the 10-second sound bite culture, and now the internet has emboldened even the most stupid crackpot. Plus, of course, it has made the spread of such things as the grossest pornography, torture, etc., as easy as pie. We're not on a good road here, folks.

[madfloridian]

6. WTH another unrec? There is nothing but truth here.

How do you unrec truth? And why is it done?

[Newsjock]

7. Off to the greatest page for you

At least till someone else decides they don't like your "elitist" message in support of book-larnin'.

:sarcasm:

[madfloridian]

8. Heh heh. This is indeed an unpopular topic

Thanks for that.

I get so irritated when a post that really might get neither recs or unrecs is treated that way the minute it is posted.

:hi:

oops, just had another.

[annabanana]

36. many of the "unrec-ers" are paid to bury the good stuff.... n/t

[PatSeg]

75. It tends to happen shortly after a thread is posted for the

most part. The irony is "unrec'ing" a new and interesting thread only motivates the rest of us to rec a thread more aggressively. As soon as I read "who has unrec'd" this thread already?", I am compelled to reverse the travesty.

Well written op by the way, thanks.

[madfloridian]

85. Ha you make some good points.

I did not think of it that way. Unrec curiosity. :)

[PatSeg]

106. I found out first hand rather quickly,

when I posted "who the hell unrec'd this thread already?" Within minutes the thread was miraculously blessed, probably with more rec's than it deserved.

Guess we outnumber the unrec'ers and are more unified in purpose.

[rubberducky]

9. The ONLY positive thing that came from raygun was his son Ron.

[defendandprotect]

95. Patti wasn't bad either ... she immediately exposed the "October Surprise" . .

deal to hold hostages until Reagan came into office --

[barbtries]

10. this needs a lot of kicks

it was an eye opener, and i'm from CA

[smoogatz]

12. Reagan was a fascist piece of shit.

Terrible president--incredibly destructive.

[defendandprotect]

93. Sold his soul for money . . .

[young_at_heart]

14. The large class size got to me

My last year was 1988----burned out in LA!

[Hardrada]

15. A great post. All should know this.

[madfloridian]

16. Many here don't remember his presidency.

And how it started things that led us to the mess we are in today.

He was contemptuous of teachers, he wanted to privatize everything.

[Hardrada]

18. I remember well and am glad he didn't get a lot of the stuff he wanted.

One good thing is that he only invaded one little island. Bad thing is that he let the Bushes in and they were waiting in the wings during his terms.

[Maccagirl]

21. I lived through it, remember it

and hate his ass to my dying day.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Thanks for that and this is

a problem that goes actually before Reagan. It is the hate of the Intellectual in certain quarters of the US culture... He was just vocal about it.

[madfloridian]

20. He was an actor, and he was very good at promoting the agenda.

He came across as a nice guy. But he did so much harm.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. He was the front man for the philosphy of the RW

and for that we are still paying.

[provis99]

19. of course Reagan hated education. for him, its personal

He was a complete dimwit who did badly in school, and admitted when he went to Eureka College, he never got higher than a C. So of course he was mad at people smarter than he was, and liked to put them down to make his idiotic self feel better. No one should be surprised when a moron envies and hates smart people.

[bridgit]

22. Reagan was another one, he wouldn't listen to anyone but his handlers...

And as a simple guy himself why should he? He had every luxury and trapping for he and Nancy, sprawling ranchos and vistas fresh horses personal astrologers, fat cat republican cronies all vying for his communication skills and made tons of money in the meantime for little more than hocking Boraxo, Chesterfield cigarettes, bottle feeding chimps, and being a smart ass

We know how he felt about unions; he fuckered his own when pres of SAG handing away all the plumbs to the studios, firing air traffic, etc, but Reagan and the guys he worked for wanted at the teachers union and that's easier to do when by extension you discount the product of their endeavor: public education, buh'sides...

He'd been told in no uncertain terms I am quite sure, that the workers in the world to come didn't need to be any smarter than he was, and that cuts a wide berth. Just smart enough to assemble widgets and not quibble about their feet being too tired to vote

[intheflow]

24. I was on a local talk show a few years ago.

One of the other panelists was a young man in his 20's who had either been born during the Reagan administration or was only a toddler when he came into office. We talked about a variety of local issues, including school funding. This young troll was railing against public education saying that his "whole life he's been hearing teachers whine about how education was funded but he never saw any improvement in the education system." Me and the other liberal on the panel asked him if the teachers had ever gotten the monies they requested, or if, in fact, their budgets continued to be cut throughout his primary educational career. He couldn't answer. He had no idea, he was completely ignorant about actually school funding, he was just talking shit (probably learned at his Repuke parents' knees).

A better argument against defunding public schools could not have been made.

[madfloridian]

73. The "teachers whine" meme is being used when teachers try to defend themselves.

It has been that way since the Reagan attacks. We are losers and whiners.

[Dinger]

89. madfloridian Scores Again! : )

[Selena Harris]

130. Big Cheese and Whine

Hmm... wasn't 2008 a good year for Wall Street whine?............Isn't Wall Street a "special interest " group?

Remember when Raygun pal and deregulator -in -chief Phil Gramm led the dregulation of Wall Street? Called the US a nation of whiners?

The second pressing of the Grapes of Wrath.

A bitter vintage to be sure.

[madfloridian]

133. Yes, they did call us a nation of whiners.

They framed their issues so well that even people who totally disagreed were cheering them on as they harmed our country.

[BrklynLiberal]

25. K and R!!!

[Quantess]

27. Reagan's idea is that, teachers suck. So don't give them any of YOUR tax money!!

Because the teachers are all welfare queens who get manicures on their fat paychecks.

YOUR tax money should go to the militarial industrial complex, which grew exponentially, starting with Ronald Reagan.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

28. Reagan destoryed much of what was great about America

I think the impact of what he did will be felt for generations to come and not in a good way

[Reader Rabbit]

29. My parents moved to CA to teach in the 1960's.

At the time, California had the best public education in the country. After nearly a decade of Reagan as governor, its ranking plummeted to somewhere in the 40's (out of 50 states). Republicans want to kill public education. You'll never convince me otherwise.

[destes]

30. Reader Rabbit wisely says.................

"Republicans want to kill public education. You'll never convince me otherwise."

Actually, quality public education is but one leg, the free flow of information being the other. Together they provide the foundation on which our representative democracy stands. The goal of concentrated wealth is to tear that institution limb from limb and reduce the citizenry to serfdom. Reagan's fallacies were instrumental in creating the present condition wherein the top 1% have equal wealth to the bottom 95%.

Reagan embodied the unbridled greed of the elite class. What would they care of facts or truth so long as they had boundless power? How could they attain the high moral standard of popular beneficence when nothing stands between them and the equation, self-gratification + self-satisfaction = self-righteousness.

Reagan opened his 1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, cynically dangling the candy of "states rights" rhetoric in the faces of the most poorly educated people in the country. Since then, Republican voters have been but the witless tools of those who hold them in disdain.

[2Design]

34. I believe they do too - they are trying to bust the unions n/t

[druidity33]

54. my first thought too.

It was a blatant attempt to destroy some of the largest Unions in the country. Which better one to pick on than the one which had a high proportion of educated individuals across every portion of the country? If Reagan could have made Unions illegal, he would have. And he was a Union President!

[Hannah Bell]

37. of course they do.

[dotymed]

38. I graduated H.S. before Raygun

became Governor. I remember having a California transfer
student and later working with some people from California's
public school system (my age). I was envious of their
education. They were obviously a well informed populace. I
don't know how they rank now, but pre-reagan they were well
educated.

[PSzymeczek]

118. Correct me if I'm not remembering correctly,

but isn't St. Ronnie of Raygun the one that ended free education at state universities when he was Governor of California?

[izquierdista]

127. I remember it being cheap, but not free

I didn't go to UC until after his 8-year screw-up as governor. UC was relatively inexpensive in the '70s, and the state university system even more so, but I think there were always "fees". He really wasn't able to ruin education in California as much as he wanted to when he was governor. Maybe that's why he savaged it with a vengeance as President.

[lostnfound]

31. K&R, although I don't believe it all started under Reagan.

My opinions are all over the map on education subjects and some may see my perspectives as a bundle of contradictions. But I recognize the truth and importance of what you have written.

Under Reagan the assault on quality public education rose to new heights. However, the roots of the 'demeaning' of public education go back further. Do you disagree that a shift in education occurred in the early 1900s which was intended to support the new industrial economy?

What I read in the history of this era is that education became a tool of big business way back then -- not a profit center directly, but standardized, and intended to homogenize and declaw the masses. By "homogenize" I am not referring to aspects of culture or ethnic background but to the citizenry as a marketing target and as production units, which was how big business would have viewed it.

In a speech he gave before businessmen prior to the First World War, Woodrow Wilson made this unabashed disclosure: "We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks."
...
At first, the primary target was the tradition of independent livelihoods in America. Unless Yankee entrepreneurialism could be extinguished, at least among the common population, the immense capital investments that mass production industry required for equipment weren’t conceivably justifiable. Students were to learn to think of themselves as employees competing for the favor of management. Not as Franklin or Edison had once regarded themselves, as self-determined, free agents.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/2a.htm

Being the child of someone educated before this big revolution occurred, I need reach back only one generation to get a sense of the independence and resilience taught to children of that era. My dad had no sense of being "an employee competing for the favor of management", and scraped by poorly but proudly and independently as a man with his own small business. He was taught the 3Rs and self-educated beyond that (perhaps largely because he read the entire newspaper every day of his 70 year life (adult, anyway), in the years before "USA Today"). He enjoyed THINKING.

I wonder about the TEXTBOOKS. For how long have teachers in the classroom been restricted from making their own selections? When did centralized bodies begin influencing the content, and was the process democratic and transparent, or was it concealed and private? Today, the messages incorporated even in grammar books for lower grades are astonishing. My son's third grade book includes sentences to complete which are essentially about the benefits of globalization. It has gotten quite bizarre.

I do not intend to attack the public schools. I am concerned about the infiltration of corporations into the schools, and I would prefer that teachers were more empowered. I don't think that centralized, concentrated decision making is healthy. Teachers are hamstrung in many ways, now more than ever, from NCLB to textbook control to overcrowded classrooms to the imposition of teaching protocols from far away. They need more freedom and LESS standardization, to let some oxygen into the schoolday.

[bbgrunt]

123. here, hear! so true. Incredibly the same de-skilling

has been happening at the university level since at least the 1980's. Teachers at all levels have become nothing more than slaves paid by the piece. And efforts to "evaluate" teachers and "merit" based pay have accelerated the decline.

Truly, I am amazed when so many, (including many teachers themselves) are blind to these incentives and the arc of history here.

Thanks Mad for another great thread with lots of great discussion.

[JCMach1]

32. about every 25yrs there is a 'Johnny Can't Read" article...

And then right-wing press kicks in followed by knee jerk stuff from the politicos.

[bbgrunt]

124. ...and the stupid people on Leno's street.

[JCMach1]

128. afraid so...

[lib_wit_it]

33. Excellent OP! The public school in which I taught from 1987 to 2005 was administered and staffed

by a majority of anti-intellectuals. I always thought there was something in the water in that town (most of the teachers and admins were locals), but maybe Reagan got to them.

As we know, it's better for Republicans if the citizens are poorly educated.

In addition to dumbing down all students, I think the ultimate goal of privatizing public education and the voucher system is to make the schools safe for the home-schooled by funneling even more public funding into Fundamentalist Christian schools, whose main priority would be religious indoctrination, not education.

[Doremus]

84. Besides dumbing down the populace and propping up christian schools,

there is a third motive:

Diverting public money into private hands.

That's Reason One, the others are icing on the cake.

[dotymed]

35. When Reagan reversed

the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE, he also did a great disservice to
education in America. When he decided, through FCC sycophants,
that "the content of media should be determined by the
free market." He sold the truth to the highest bidder.
That allowed corporations to disseminate their
"truth" without regard to facts. This has had a
devastating effect on the mindset of most Americans. If they
see something portrayed as the truth, in the media, they have
a tendency to believe it. Fox news was sued by some of its own
"news people", because they wanted to present some
scientific facts on Monsanto. The case went all the way to the
Florida Supreme Court. The court decided that "news
programs are not responsible to be honest in their
reporting." This is amazing precedent and a perfect
argument for THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE.

[Enthusiast]

56. This is exactly how it happened.

Since then Rush Limbaugh has redefined what a liberal is. He made 'liberal' a dirty word in middle America.

There was a reason the fairness doctrine existed, a very good reason it existed. It protected fairness. Now there is none.

[madfloridian]

76. I remember that case. Those two were reporters at WTVT in Tampa.

They fought the battle for years.

[defendandprotect]

96. Everyone should read your post . . . Fairness Doctrine has to be put back in place . . . !!!

We complain about the right wing propaganda, but it is this overturning of the Fairness

Doctrine which has permitted untruths/lies to be broadcast!!

[TheKentuckian]

40. I rec the OP but I'll sound a warning as well.

As long as teachers allow themselves to be perceived as finger pointers that simultaneously present themselves as crucial as the hub in a wheel but never accountable then this will continue to go the wrong way.

Before it is too late teachers and their unions really need to come up with a competing theory and methods of evaluating their own work or it is inevitable that you will be harnessed to crap that you decry and is likely ineffective at driving performance as well.

Saying "No!" while failing to provide alternatives only even slightly works if you control the megaphone. I don't know how to say it any other way than to say that standing up in front of 30 kids of wildly varying ability and interests and pitching down the middle has been a problem way before Reagan and people have latched on and will never let go on this. Sadly, the charter schools and all that don't address the problems either but THEY ARE SOMETHING DIFFERENT and as such can be sold as making an effort. Even a bad plan usually trumps no plan.

If teachers continue to fail to come up with a system to evaluate themselves and their outcomes then someone will and you aren't going to like it and it probably won't be worth a crap either but lots of kids and educators will get rolled in the meanwhile.

[smoogatz]

53. It's called standardized testing, and they've been doing it

for fifty years, at least (we had standardized tests when I was in grade school, in the '60s). Here's what they find, again and again: students in school districts with a lot of money score better on standardized tests, pretty much across the board, than students in poorer school districts. Why is that? Wealthy school districts hire more and better teachers; they keep class sizes relatively small; they offer a richer, more up-to-date curriculum; their students tend to come from more privileged households and so are better prepared; drugs, violence, poor nutrition, lead poisoning, fetal alcohol syndrome, teen pregnancy and other health issues do not derail as many students in wealthier districts. Assessment's fine, and pretty much every school district in the country now pays full-time assessment people to do self-study after self-study and then compare those self-studies with those of neighboring districts, etc. They also pay people to administer NCLB, the biggest unfunded mandate to fall on the heads of American public schools since the Americans with Disabilities Act. But no amount of assessment, however frenetic and well-intended, is ever going to be a replacement for properly funding public schools. Ultimately, it really does come down to money, and we've known that for a very long time.

[djp2]

90. As opposed to Standards-based testing

where they can make the "Standards" anything they want! They aren't based on any logical reasoning. Our Kindergarteners are now expected to read as much as 2nd graders did in the past. I can't understand why those who make the tests in my state (California) keep pushing harder and harder work on our kids. Well yes I can see, they really want ALL schools to fail so the private education backers can come in and take over.
I say let's go back to "Standardized" norm-referenced tests of the 70s and 80s and see how our kids match up.

[defendandprotect]

99. Agree -- agenda is to privatize the schools . . . and leave as many behind as they can --!!

[MadHound]

59. Let's see, teachers are held accountable by their administrators, parents, school board, the state

And the public at large. They are required to provide portfolios of their work, are videotaped, observed and tested. This has always been so. Is that enough accountability for you. Tell you what, let's let the public determine how large your salary is and what your working conditions and physical environment is like.

Stop blowing that horn that teachers aren't held accountable. Teachers are some of the most accounted for professionals out there. Hell, if investment bankers and Wall St. financiers were held as accountable as teachers were, we wouldn't have had the housing bubble and subsequent meltdown. Instead, we're throwing more money at these people, part of which is coming out of education funding.

So stop repeating that tired, disproven meme. You're sounding like the local mouth breathing RW fundies who are trying to force their way, and their morality onto the local schoolboard.

[smoogatz]

62. +1

Well said.

[RedEarth]

111. +2

[madfloridian]

72. Did you know teachers seldom get a voice in curriculum and methodology?

By the time I retired, there was a scripted curriculum for mindless teaching and learning.

It is the committees et al at county, state, federal levels.....teachers do as they are told or get marked down in evaluations.

I was a creative imaginative teacher until they took that away from me. They gave me a script.

[djp2]

94. our kids aren't failing...

Those at the top are failing us. Teachers are much better than 20 years ago. Don't take what you see in Standards based testing as anything other than a method to "show" that we are failing. Go back to Norm-referenced tests.. Yes those tests that actually show where the 50% line is, based on an average of all students across America... not based on some idiots hopeful thinking of where they want the kids to be (the Standards).

In Standards-based testing someone, who?..sets what the standards need to be...and these vary greatly across the nation...They can decide that 5th graders should know Caluclus.. and guess what..soon ALL 5th graders will be in Failing schools because they can't meet the "Standards"!

[defendandprotect]

98. Nonsense . Teachers are a long way down the list of what anyone would consider "unaccountable" . . .

I rec the OP but I'll sound a warning as well.
Posted by TheKentuckian

Right wing propaganda attacks from "Welfare Queens" to "Death Panels" are "Swiftboatings" which
now have the corporate-press aiding and abetting the attacks.

So anyone thinking about that now should have an ever greater understanding of the need to renew
The Fairness Doctrine --

Teachers aren't "allowing themselves" to be attacked . . . anymore than mothers and children
on welfare were allowing themselves to be attacked. Or Minority leader Tom Daschle was "allowing"
himself to be attacked -- not that I thought much of Daschle -- but he was being compared to Satan
by the right wing. He actually made a quite chilling statement about the attacks.

Nor have I ever seen any evidence that teachers are "finger pointers" who simultaneously "present themselves as crucial as the hub in a wheel, but are never accountable"!!!!

Rather what we need are stronger UNIONS and an end to the "No child left behind" philosophy which
is really a hidden attack on education.

And obviously finger pointing to as being "unaccountable" lacks any merit when applied to teachers and unions who have been under constant attack by know-nothings who unfortunately want to destroy education rather than improve it.

Much as is being pointed out here Reagan was dead-set on doing -- !!!

It's not teachers nor kids nor unions which are failing -- it is an attack on public education overall
which you seem unable to recognize!

[Echo In Light]

41. Privatization, De-regulation: the right loves the Orwellian terminology

[tanyev]

42. I will never understand why right-wingers describe liberal protestors as fascists.

Socialist or communist is still wrong, but at least you can sort of follow the twisted logic they used to get there. Maybe they think all three are the same? :shrug:

[smoogatz]

55. Words mean whatever they want them to mean.

It's all part of their pseudo-reality.

[Dinger]

43. Informative And Spot On, As Usual. K & R!

Thank you madfloridian, from the bottom of my heart!:yourock: :headbang: :applause: :patriot: :loveya: :pals: :fistbump:

[tilsammans]

44. His declaration that the state "should not subsidize intellectual curiosity" . . .

. . . makes me want to :puke: and :cry:

Of course. We Americans should all be just robots, spewing jingoism and never questioning authority.

Never questioning anything, period.

[omega minimo]

48. Rec +70 Excellent job MF, thank you

:toast:

[jotsy]

49. No rabble to reason with if their rendered intellectually incapacitated.

Education and health care are cornerstones of general well being, which in and of itself is a constitutional provision.

Reaganonomics and the 'potential for profit lies within all you see' mindset remains a dangerous philosophy if the intent is an autonomous and independent self governed citizenry. I don't know how much longer they can sell their agenda as if its form is in keeping with the intentions of the founding fathers.

[madfloridian]

83. dumbing us down...

for political reasons. Uneducated masses are easy to manipulate.

[NewJeffCT]

58. What I find especially hypocritical on RWers denouncing colleges

as bastions of liberalism and ivory tower elitism, is that they'll also turn around and point to how awesome our colleges here in the US are in support of school vouchers/school choice.

so, on one hand:
"In America, students can choose their college or university and because of it, we have the best university system in the world. Therefore, we should bring that idea to our elementary, middle and high schools as well."

On the other hand:
"Colleges and universities are bastions of ivory-tower elitists and out-of-touch limousine liberals who have no idea what is going on in (white) America."

[defendandprotect]

100. They've corporatized . . . if not militarized ... much of higher education . .. !!!

[Douglas Carpenter]

60. couldn't agree more!! kick and recommend, of course!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. When I was in a suburban high school in Minnesota in the 1960s

we had a student who had transferred from a school in the Bay Area. Judging from what she said, the school she came from had better facilities and a more rigorous and broader curriculum than ours, this being the era when California boasted the best schools in the nation, plus very low-cost colleges and universities.

Now California has some of the worst schools.

I wish I could find one of those photos from the invasion of Grenada, the ones of the graffiti (later revealed to have been splattered all over the island by U.S. operatives) saying "Thank you President Reagan God Bless America."* :sarcasm:

Obviously those photos have gone down the memory hole, as have the similar graffiti saying "Thank you President Bush God Bless America" that mysteriously appeared in Panama after the U.S. invasion there.

[midnight]

63. It gets rid of the competion the ruling classes were having to compete against.

But my all time favorite was how the no child left behind act was introduced to bring teachers up to better skill sets to become better teachers, and then presto it was all about the test. If I were a teacher, from here on in, the only change I would go along with, would be smaller class sizes. Those with another agenda other than to create a educated population have been calling the shots way to long.

[defendandprotect]

101. Yes, only the few are to be allowed to have the "paper" of higher education . . .

and any knowledge at all --

[DFW]

64. Bill Bennett calling ANYTHING a "blob"

is very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

[AllyCat]

65. Can't wait to read when kids will let me :)

Love you education articles!

[sasquatch]

66. I'll never forgive older white Americans for voting for that man

[Kievan Rus]

67. Reagan was the worst American in history. And I hope he burns in hell.

He did more to destroy our country than any other person in history...foriegn or domestic. He did more harm to America and the American way of life than King George III or the Ku Klux Klan did.

[fascisthunter]

68. the GOP/Right WIng promote Ignorance

because they know it is easier to control those who don't understand the World around them. They can tell them anything they want after they gain these folks loyalty.

[xxqqqzme]

69. What he started in California, he

expanded when he president. I was just starting college in CA when he was governor. He started dismantling then by hitting the community colleges hard.

[Bonobo]

70. Yes, plenty of DU'ers have contempt for our schools. nt

[liberal N proud]

71. K&R

[valerief]

74. America is a fundie nation. We don't need edumacation. We have faith.

:sarcasm:

[madfloridian]

77. Nor do we need science...

which is just about the feeling of some where I live.

[valerief]

78. Yeah, in your "type" of state, the only science people are told they want

is in the Bible. It's a shame. It's actually difficult to think of any states south of the Mason-Dixon and west of the Appalachians as being part of the U.S. anymore.

[defendandprotect]

92. Also so ironic that they distrust "books" . . . but they sure believe in the

Bible Bibble -- !!!

[jotsy]

115. Religious zeal is a poser as compared to genuine faith.

I dare say any deity deemed deserving would prefer the latter.

[checks-n-balances]

80. Report Card: Reagan = F; Obama = C-; madfloridian = A+

Thanks, madfloridian, for your diligent research for this post. You're always on top of all things regarding public education.
:yourock:
Unfortunately, the information you included was very disheartening and infuriating...
:grr:

YOU, and not Arne Duncan, SHOULD BE THE U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION!!!

On edit: added Obama's progress report

[Dinger]

88. + Infinity

You are SPOT ON checks-n-balances!:)

[JackDragna]

81. Rec for you from this teacher.

Anyone who would unrec this is an idiot.

[defendandprotect]

86. For years, the CIA budget was hidden in the Federal school budget . . 50% of it !!!

[Dinger]

87. Woo-Hoo, Front Page!

Congrats madfloridian!!!:) :toast: :bounce: :smoke: :thumbsup: :hi: :dem: :kick: :loveya: :pals: :fistbump: :headbang: :yourock: :applause: :patriot:

[defendandprotect]

91. Right wing propaganda is a psychological attack intended to create distrust of our

own commons sense and our fellow citizens -- our teachers -- !!!

"Arm yourselves" . . . your fellow citizens are dangerous drug addicts!!!

Began long, long ago!!

Right wing propaganda has certainly worked--!!!

[LuckyLib]

97. I have two U of Calif degrees with Ronnie Raygun's signature on them. Makes me sick.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

He was an imbecile, a corporate shill, and a pitiful excuse for a leader. He appealed to the same closed-minded RW crazies we now see in charge of the store.

[madfloridian]

102. Getting educators out of education....not including them in the changes.

http://www.edutopia.org/landmark-education-report-nation-risk

"Getting Educators Out of Education

In 1989, Bush convened his education summit at the University of Virginia. Astonishingly, no teachers, professional educators, cognitive scientists, or learning experts were invited. The group that met to shape the future of American education consisted entirely of state governors. Education was too important, it seemed, to leave to educators. School reform, as formulated by the summit, moved so forcefully onto the nation's political agenda that, in the 1992 presidential campaign, Bill Clinton had to promise to outtough Bush on education. As president, Clinton steered through Congress a bill called Goals 2000 that largely co-opted the policies that came out of the 1989 Bush summit.

After the 2000 election, George W. Bush dubbed himself America's "educator in chief," and until terrorism hijacked the national agenda, he was staking his presidency on a school-reform package known as the No Child Left Behind Act, a bill that -- as every teacher knows -- dominates the course of public education in America today.

School reform is not a settled issue, however, and the ongoing debate about how best to go about it reflects a larger struggle between two competing ideologies. The many initiatives discussed for changing public education -- accountability, standards, standardized testing, homework, arts in the curriculum, and so on -- comprise one side of that debate."

And from that link about NCLB:

"What's Next?

Don't be shocked if NCLB ends up channeling American education into that third current, even though it seems like part of the mainstream get-tough approach. Educational researcher Gerald Bracey, author of Reading Educational Research: How to Avoid Getting Statistically Snookered, writes in Stanford magazine that "NCLB aims to shrink the public sector, transfer large sums of public money to the private sector, weaken or destroy two Democratic power bases -- the teachers' unions -- and provide vouchers to let students attend private schools at public expense."

Why? Because NCLB is set up to label most American public schools as failures in the next six or seven years. Once a school flunks, this legislation sets parents free to send their children to a school deemed successful. But herds of students moving from failed schools to (fewer) successful ones are likely to sink the latter. And then what? Then, says NCLB, the state takes over."

[erinlough]

107. This is so true.

When your goal you must meet is 100% of students taking the state test meeting or exceeding the goals, including special education students, you know you are set up to fail. And not just some schools will fail, all schools will fall short. When they have enough Charters set up and enough vouchers given out they will drop the unrealistic goals and the deed will be done. I'm glad I'm almost out.

[chervilant]

131. hmmm...

I am struggling to achieve certification through an accelerated program in the Houston metropolitan area. I have gotten to teach one year of math (7th grade, and a Pre-AP class), but I do not have a full time position at present because my last administrator forced me to resign. I am working three jobs to make ends meet, yet I remain determined to be certified--even if I have to realign with a different accelerated program.

I should have known I would be slogging upstream after my first training experience. Our trainers identified our group as a specific cohort 'number' (six, if I recall correctly). My efforts to engage the rather sizeable group in a "contest" to come up with a fun and creative team-building cohort name met with much derision and eye rolling. Not one single cohort member showed any interest in networking or team building. Not one...

Much to my dismay, my first 'mentor teacher' was a bully. He did a lot of damage in his efforts to be absolved of his role as my mentor (he was perniciously sarcastic about my vocabulary and my intellect--so much so that veteran teachers I didn't even know began pulling me aside to tell me they were working on getting him replaced!). On the bright side, he was a stark contrast to the numerous veteran teachers who went out of their way to welcome and support me...

This 'mentor' told me not to 'worry' about a practice TAKS test we had to administer to our students. I assured my students the practice TAKS test was indeed 'just practice' and that they should do their best on it so we could see where they needed more help. Well, 80% of my students failed the practice test (even though they had been scoring on par with all the other students on their routine standardized tests). This 'practice TAKS' event was the beginning of the end for me (formally speaking)...

My administrator decided I had not 'taught my students a lick of math all year' and took over my regular students for the time remaining before the formal TAKS test. I was allowed to continue teaching my Pre-AP students, but I was told I would have to resign or my principal would put a non-renewal clause in my contract. Obviously, I submitted my resignation, since a non-renewal clause would mean I'd never teach again in our district...

Anyway, I regret I didn't join a teacher's union before I started my first school year. I regret I've begun this odyssey to become a certified teacher here in Texas, where most of my peers agree that creationism should be taught on a par with evolution. I regret that our district is in dire financial straits, and cannot afford to hire all the teachers they need...

Now that I've whinged at length about my rather challenging first year in this program (mine is not a unique experience, which is why I've provided such detail), here is what I've learned about our students:

--our students spend almost eight hours a day, five days a week, sequestered in sterile classrooms with teachers who are still in a learning curve about ActivBoards and PowerPoints. Most students are expected to learn standardized material at a standardized pace, most often presented in a boring lecture format(never mind their stimulus rich and vastly more entertaining home environments).

--our students are almost uniformly equipped with healthy brains and an innate curiosity about our universe that could easily translate into an enthusiastic love of learning--yet, most of them are completely jaded about 'school' by the time they've muddled through the sixth grade.

--most of my regular students were completely befuddled by simple multiplication and long division. Fractions threw almost all of them into a tizzy (even my Pre-APers). Word problems--forget about it!

--most teachers go along to get along, and have been frightened into compliance by power-mongering, petty administrators who fear losing their own jobs if a certain percentage of students don't achieve a certain score on their standardized tests.

--students only had to make the equivalent of 53% on their standardized tests last year in order to 'pass' the test--a BIG reason why our administrator could brag about an '80% pass rate' in ELAR among our eighth graders.

--most of our students' parents are completely disinterested in their child(ren)'s academic careers. On being asked to attend a parent-teacher conference, one parent said, "when he walks through your doors, he's YOUR problem." She never did participate in a conference to help her son.

--too many of our Latino children--having just arrived from Mexico or points south of Mexico--could not speak, read or write English. Their parents risked deportation if they tried to advocate for their child(ren), so they too learned to 'go along to get along.'

--almost everyone (including students) disparages NCLB. Only the vile corporate megalomaniacs--for whom NCLB produces compliant, functionally illiterate factory and service industry fodder--are happy with NCLB (at least, until they've completely dismantled public education)...

BTW, there is nothing 'astonishing' about this whole scenario. I've known about the corporatists' assault on public education since before the days of St. Ronnie (he of the "catsup is a vegetable" political persuasion...), and I am not alone in that awareness.

If ours were truly a 'child-centric society' the vast majority of us would get off our fat asses and translate our time and energy into action--damn the torpedoes. We cannot let fear of losing our jobs, having no health insurance, or any other reason deter us from protecting our children's future.

[defendandprotect]

103. k i c k

[Turbineguy]

104. Reagan understood the danger of an educated populace.

Educated people are a threat to idiots in power.

[Deja Q]

109. Reagan was senile by 1987 ("I don't remember"). Whether he was in 1980 is another argument,

though it's possible his illness started around then, too...

[PSzymeczek]

119. I do not doubt that he was by 1984. n/t

[erinlough]

108. The shame is that when I started teaching CA was the gold standard of

education. When it came to new ideas and best practices California was the center. When Reagan started his assault they began to slide out of view. What a loss to all of us in education.

[madfloridian]

112. An uncle and aunt taught there....you are right. It was a superior system.

I remember when they started really being unhappy with the system there. They never believed it was Reagan's doing.

[tekisui]

110. knr!!~

[varelse]

113. I can't believe it took me this long to rec this

:kick:

[bread_and_roses]

114. a big R here - teachers have been demeaned till no one questions why - it just is so

- like a given. So that even "liberal" "giants" like Ted Kennedy come up with idiotcies like NCLB, and Obama slops along dutifully in the backwash of the rabid anti-intellectualism, anti-public education propaganda of the last thirty years.

and may that blood-soaked monster Ray-gun rotforever - I wish I believed in hell so I could consign him there.

[wroberts189]

117. Lets all not forget he made ketchup a vegetable for school lunches.

And the lunches were already pretty bad.

[pleah]

120. I've been saying for years that under RR

is when all the small school began to shut down. Then they started building what I call mega schools, then school shootings began.


K&R

[RoccoR5955]

121. K & R Reagan was only president

because John Wayne was dead. An actor is what they wanted, and it's what they got. He wasn't even a good actor, but he was true to his corporatist bosses.

[troubledamerican]

122. Tinfoil Conspiracy Theory?

I agree with every word you wrote.

But most ordinary "apolitical" citizens are discouraged from acknowledging the "Drown Government In The Bathtub" conspiracy because THEY ROUTINELY SEE PEOPLE ATTACKED FOR CALLING OUT shit like this.

[BlooInBloo]

125. lol! After incessant whining about unrecs, it's now over 200!

:rofl:

Proof positive that Americans are dumb: they simply cannot tell the difference between short-term transient behavior of a system, and long-term steady-state behavior of a system.

[madfloridian]

126. I am very careful what I say here anymore.

But I will say that enough is enough. Good by bloo and bloo, ridicule others. I am tired of it. No more.

[mnhtnbb]

129. I was a UCLA student at the time of Kent State and Ronnie's signature

was on my BS '73 and MPH '75.

I watched Ronnie Reagan destroy public education, including the fabulous California University system,
from a front row seat.

[madfloridian]

132. Kick