The cognitive dissonance the Times Union has for education

I am continuoulsy amazed by the cognitive dissonance constantly displayed by the Times Union’s editorial board when it comes to public education. They showed their complete lack of understanding when they praised the recent uptick in our graduation rates and called for more patience for the current leadership of Ed Pratt-Dannals

First friends, like most of the district numbers are, our graduation rate improvement is all smoke and mirrors. 71% even on it’s face is at the bottom of the state and nearly ten points below the state average but it’s worse than that. Thousands of students aren’t factored into the rate and our rate is inflated by the overuse of grade recovery which helps graduate kids ill prepared for life.

Then lets talk about leadership. Which came first the chicken or the egg? Which came first, problems in our intervene schools or leadership that led to these problems. I believe the team in place now is responsible. They ignored discipline, cajoled teachers into passing children who weren’t prepared to be successful, something the TU as much admits when they talk about kids not being able to read on grade level, accelerated the brain drain from schools through the creation of more and more magnet schools and then sat back and ignored the problems these decisions created at many of our schools.

Here is a heads up Mr. Editor; four of our schools were already voluntarily given away to Education Direction just days before the school year began. Next year it won’t be voluntary and more schools will join them.

Last year I wrote the Times Union and asked them how much longer are we going to let this administration run our schools into the ground? I did the same thing the year before and I am going to do the same thing next year too unless there is a change. This administration’s only cards are to move administrators around and blame teachers. How long should we wait Mr. Editor? How many more children have to fall through the cracks or graduate knee capped because of the poor education they received?

Chris Guerrieri
School Teacher