Northeast Florida if you wanted to destroy education, knee cap the middle class and do harm to the state you have come up aces. Embrace what you have done; own it, because if we get much more of Wise, Thrasher and Scott that will be about all you do own, it’s definitely all your children will.
Congratulations Northeast Florida, you are the epicenter for the destruction of the state’s public schools. Your recent dogged insistence to vote against you and your children’s interests and for politicians that couldn’t care less about the both of you have signaled education’s death knell. When you voted for Steven Wise, John Thrasher and Rick Scott you may as well as put a stake through education’s heart and forks in our children, because they too like our schools are done.
Steven Wise is no friend of public education and this has been made more evident by his senate bill 736 or what he laughably calls the teacher quality bill. In his bill teachers become at will employees and can be fired regardless of performance. Speak up? You’re gone. The principal doesn’t like you? You’re gone. The principal’s neighbor has a nephew who thinks he might like to try teaching because it would be cool to have summers off? You’re gone. This not increased quality, is what senate bill 736 will allow to happen. It also gets rid of pay increases for advanced degrees. I hope this irony is not lost on you. In every profession we say the more education you get the better off you will be, every profession except education that is, and it also gets rid of seniority and due process, two of the long established tenants of education.
The bill is also another unfunded mandate. School districts will be required to come up with ways to finance the various teacher salary scales and all the increased testing that the bill calls for. Kids will be taught more to the test than ever because now a teacher’s job is on the line more than ever. These tests are not just going to magically appear. They will be developed and scored by educational testing companies who will drain much needed money away from schools coffers and reap millions in profits. Then there will also be teacher evaluation systems that has Michelle Rhee and others salivating. Oh you didn’t know Michelle Rhee has a teacher evaluation system. Why she does, it’s called IMPACT and it has widely been panned in Washington D.C. which means it is probably on the fast track to Florida; after all she is the darling of Rick Scott and Wise.
Steven Wise has cloaked the bill in simplistic easy to please statements like merit pay and reward our best teachers. He doesn’t mention that teachers, who may know better what’s best for them than he does are overwhelmingly against it. His bill is like giving doctors who didn’t ask for it a clump or dirt and saying it’s a cutting edge scalpel and they must use it. Wise also doesn’t mention that there is no study that says merit pay works. Not one! In fact all the studies say it is the equivalent of the luck of the draw. Teacher’s student’s success on standardized tests varies wildly as students enter and leave their classes.
Wise says he wants to improve education, my question is how? Is it by making teachers want to leave and replacements harder to attract because that is what his bill is really doing; hey Jacksonville great job in voting for him.
Then there is John Thrasher who makes no apologies for his distain, no make that hatred for teachers and their unions and he comes from St. Johns County which is the top school district in the state, thank goodness he didn’t come from a county lower on the list. Wake up St. Johns, his way of thinking is going to hurt the schools and kids in your county as well but I guess some of you didn’t think about that while shooting nine at the country club. Would Deborah Giannoulis really have been such a bad alternative? She ran on a platform of doing what’s best for our kids, Thrasher has a history of doing what’s not.
He wants to end collective bargaining and destroy workers rights. He wants to do this by ending payroll deductions for unions but at the same time continue to allow payroll deductions for the United Way and other organizations and by decertifying unions that have a membership of less than fifty percent plus one. Why should multi-million or billion dollar corporations, his friends and supporters be the only one with a voice in government? In the end all his bill amounts to is rewarding his friends and silencing his enemies. Even if you don’t like unions, is this the America you want to live in? Do you want to live in a country where our corporate over loads tell us what to think and feel and limit the earning power of millions of everyday citizens; if so communist Russia would have been the place for you. This is not just a teacher battle here, this is a battle for the future of the middle class and if we are going to have one or not. Way to go St. Johns, you have just destroyed the teaching profession and public education but potentially the middle class as well, talk about a trifecta.
Thrasher and Wise are so concerned about education that instead of demanding Scott rescind his draconian budget, they develop bills that will handicap and set back the profession. No thanks guys and don’t worry about me I’ll try and get somebody to pull the knife out of my and the thousands of teachers back you just put it in.
Then there is Rick Scott, he of the 1.7 billion dollar fine for fraud who won the election with less than fifty percent of the vote, which was more of a referendum against Obama than for him. You have to hand it to him though, while spending eighty million dollars of his own personal fortune he made the election about Washington D.C. not about Florida. I get it that you don’t like Obammacare but how do you feel about gutting social services for the sick, disabled and children. How do you feel about him curtailing protections for the environment and our rivers and how do you feel about him cutting billions from our already resource starved education system? Friends we were already fiftieth in the nation. He and this is adjusted for inflation, wants to send us back to 1976 levels of school spending, you know before all the unfunded mandates and changes to education that siphoned millions away to corporate charter schools, vouchers and education testing companies.
North East Florida voted for this transplant and while hoping to create additional tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals in addition to the billions we already give, he seeks to balance the budget on the backs of the working poor and the middle class. Cut your own throat much North East Florida.
He won by saying he would create jobs, well the tens of thousands of teachers and government workers who are about to find themselves unemployed aren’t so optimistic about his plan. And friends we are already a low tax, pro business state without an income tax. If companies aren’t rushing here now do you really thing they are going to do so after we destroy public education, curtail government services and harm the environment?
Northeast Florida once again, if you wanted to destroy education, knee cap the middle class and do harm to the state you have come up aces. Embrace what you have done; own it, because if we get much more of Wise, Thrasher and Scott that will be about all you do, it’s definitely all your children will.
Showing posts with label Standardized Testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Standardized Testing. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Controversial Rhee calls for bad reforms
Merit pay is not proven to work and determining teachers pay by how some of their children do on standardized tests would be like tying their salary to the wind, unfair and impossible. -cpg
From the Palm Beach Post
by Tony Alanez
TALLAHASSEE — Controversial school reformer Michelle Rhee told Florida lawmakers Wednesday that students would be better off if public schools could get rid of teacher tenure and ineffective teachers without delay.
"Tenure does not put students first," she said before the Senate Prek-12 Education Committee. "It should be virtually impossible for an ineffective educator to stay in the classroom."
The former chancellor of the Washington public school system and founder of Students First serves as an informal education advisor to Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
A 41-year-old Democrat, she has been criticized for firing more than 200 teachers, closing dozens of failing schools and her support of measuring teacher quality by students' test scores.
Her boss, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost his bid for re-election in last year's primary, and she resigned in October amid outcry from unions.
Rhee, who is featured in the education documentary "Waiting for Superman," was introduced to Florida legislators as a "movie star." Lawmakers lauded her for political courage and willingness "to take the heat."
Her No. 1 word of caution: "If you'd like to learn from one of the mistakes I made in particular, make it as clear as possible that you are not out to get teachers when you talk about and create policies that reflect how incredible their influence is."
Rhee praised SB 736 or "Race to the Top for Student Success" bill now before lawmakers that would rely heavily on student test scores to judge teacher performance and end tenure for new instructors.
A similar effort last year was widely criticized by teachers as unworkable and unfair and was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
Crist, who was in the capitol Wednesday, said he was disappointed to see the return of similar legislation.
"I obviously had very strong feelings about it last year, that's why I vetoed it," Crist said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with merit pay per se, but it seems to me that it has to be crafted in a way that is fundamentally fair too."
Public education faces a 10 percent reduction under Scott's newly proposed budget, but Rhee said such cuts do not have to result in damaged schools systems.
"Money does not necessarily correlate with student achievement," she said. "In this country in the last 30 years, we have more than doubled the amount of money we are spending per child…and the results have gotten worse not better."
Noting that Florida's education system recently was ranked fifth in the nation, Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee asked: "How can we be such an inept public school system, yet rank so high?"
National standing is not an adequate measure, said Rhee, emphasizing that today's children will be competing for jobs on a global level.
Last-one-in, first-one-out firing policies result in more jobs lost and tend to have negative impact on poorer neighborhoods, Rhee said.
That's because newer teachers earn less than tenured ones, so when it's time for layoffs more have to be fired to meet budget gaps, she said, and it's the schools in the neediest neighborhoods that tend to employ new teachers.
"[These firing policies are] decimating schools of the best educators in neighborhoods that need them the most," she said.
Rhee did not quibble with Democratic Hollywood Sen. Eleanor Sobel's concerns that perhaps teaching programs were failing to adequately prepare future educators.
"I'm very disappointed with the majority of teacher education programs across the country," Rhee said. "[They're] not actually preparing teachers well for the rigors they're going to see every single day in the classroom."
Rhee additionally called for separating teacher evaluations from the collective bargaining process, requiring teachers to pay into their retirement accounts and eliminating the practice of school districts paying for teachers to earn Master's Degrees.
"Keep being a leader in this most urgent area of need for our country," she said. "As you know, being among the first to challenge the status quo will not make your lives easy, especially when confronting the economic pressures that threaten the communities across the state."
Rhee made a repeat performance before the House PreK-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee Wednesday afternoon. The Senate committee is expected to vote on the bill Thursday afternoon.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/scotts-reformer-tells-legislators-dump-tenure-bad-teachers-1244326.html
From the Palm Beach Post
by Tony Alanez
TALLAHASSEE — Controversial school reformer Michelle Rhee told Florida lawmakers Wednesday that students would be better off if public schools could get rid of teacher tenure and ineffective teachers without delay.
"Tenure does not put students first," she said before the Senate Prek-12 Education Committee. "It should be virtually impossible for an ineffective educator to stay in the classroom."
The former chancellor of the Washington public school system and founder of Students First serves as an informal education advisor to Florida Gov. Rick Scott.
A 41-year-old Democrat, she has been criticized for firing more than 200 teachers, closing dozens of failing schools and her support of measuring teacher quality by students' test scores.
Her boss, Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost his bid for re-election in last year's primary, and she resigned in October amid outcry from unions.
Rhee, who is featured in the education documentary "Waiting for Superman," was introduced to Florida legislators as a "movie star." Lawmakers lauded her for political courage and willingness "to take the heat."
Her No. 1 word of caution: "If you'd like to learn from one of the mistakes I made in particular, make it as clear as possible that you are not out to get teachers when you talk about and create policies that reflect how incredible their influence is."
Rhee praised SB 736 or "Race to the Top for Student Success" bill now before lawmakers that would rely heavily on student test scores to judge teacher performance and end tenure for new instructors.
A similar effort last year was widely criticized by teachers as unworkable and unfair and was ultimately vetoed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist.
Crist, who was in the capitol Wednesday, said he was disappointed to see the return of similar legislation.
"I obviously had very strong feelings about it last year, that's why I vetoed it," Crist said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with merit pay per se, but it seems to me that it has to be crafted in a way that is fundamentally fair too."
Public education faces a 10 percent reduction under Scott's newly proposed budget, but Rhee said such cuts do not have to result in damaged schools systems.
"Money does not necessarily correlate with student achievement," she said. "In this country in the last 30 years, we have more than doubled the amount of money we are spending per child…and the results have gotten worse not better."
Noting that Florida's education system recently was ranked fifth in the nation, Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee asked: "How can we be such an inept public school system, yet rank so high?"
National standing is not an adequate measure, said Rhee, emphasizing that today's children will be competing for jobs on a global level.
Last-one-in, first-one-out firing policies result in more jobs lost and tend to have negative impact on poorer neighborhoods, Rhee said.
That's because newer teachers earn less than tenured ones, so when it's time for layoffs more have to be fired to meet budget gaps, she said, and it's the schools in the neediest neighborhoods that tend to employ new teachers.
"[These firing policies are] decimating schools of the best educators in neighborhoods that need them the most," she said.
Rhee did not quibble with Democratic Hollywood Sen. Eleanor Sobel's concerns that perhaps teaching programs were failing to adequately prepare future educators.
"I'm very disappointed with the majority of teacher education programs across the country," Rhee said. "[They're] not actually preparing teachers well for the rigors they're going to see every single day in the classroom."
Rhee additionally called for separating teacher evaluations from the collective bargaining process, requiring teachers to pay into their retirement accounts and eliminating the practice of school districts paying for teachers to earn Master's Degrees.
"Keep being a leader in this most urgent area of need for our country," she said. "As you know, being among the first to challenge the status quo will not make your lives easy, especially when confronting the economic pressures that threaten the communities across the state."
Rhee made a repeat performance before the House PreK-20 Competitiveness Subcommittee Wednesday afternoon. The Senate committee is expected to vote on the bill Thursday afternoon.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/schools/scotts-reformer-tells-legislators-dump-tenure-bad-teachers-1244326.html
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Florida education reforms punitive not helpful
From the Hiffington Post
by Rita Solnet
I summarized Florida's Education Summit yesterday indicating that the event may have moved us a step forward towards genuine dialogue on education reform. We are certainly better off than if the summit never occurred!
What we haven't looked at -- as a state or nation -- is the big picture on some of these proposed reforms. Let's take a step back and away from the intense debate and ask this question:
Who are these reform initiatives really intended for?
The triumvirate of reforms being aggressively pushed right now are: 1) ending teacher tenure; 2) merit pay based on standardized test scores; and, 3) closing schools/firing staffs.
1) How will ending a teacher's right to due process (consistently mischaracterized as lifetime employment) help to improve the quality of education for children? Short-termers will teach without mentors or seasoned teachers to assist them? Who will you attract to the teaching profession when due process is gone? Corporate America has due process with upper management levels on day one of employment.
2) Merit pay will merely ratchet up the stakes surrounding standardized tests even more. High stakes on tests -- your pay or job riding on one test -- increase the dependency on mind-numbing bubble tests. That doesn't enrich the curriculum. In fact, it narrows it and creates more weeks of test prep, drill and practice.
3) How does closing neighborhood schools help improve the quality of education? Even when the handful of a few good charters acquire rights to open up, many children whose English is a second language or who are dubbed "hard to teach" are left in the dust of the closed school. That's reality versus rhetoric, Real world versus propaganda.
None of the reforms being touted and legislated in some states will truly enhance the quality of education. Isn't that what we set out to accomplish? When, where and why did we take a wrong turn?
Instead, this grand illusion of three reforms impedes improvement to public education. Hidden under the smokescreen of "tough love" reforms, these initiatives are destroying public education in our nation. Celebrities signed on to this front and the media bought it, hook, line and sinker.
Let's call a charade, a charade.
These reforms are specifically intended to acquire power or control over unions. Some may think that's the right fight. Some may think that's the wrong fight. But many will agree it's being played out in the wrong ring -- the classroom. The children of our nation, particularly in impoverished areas, are the ones being sucker punched.
Take your fight outside of the classroom! Settle it across a negotiation table or in a conference room or challenge each other to duels. Take a step back and realize that's what this has been reduced to. Then, for the love of all that's good and holy, please take this feud out of the classroom. These particular initiatives will cause irreparable damage to the future of our children. Don't let this administration be remembered as the one that sacrificed children's futures to seek revenge on unions.
Ending tenure reduces the candidate pool; merit pay further narrows the curriculum; and closing schools and firing staffs leaves many children in impoverished areas without a choice and devoid of hope.
I'm a business woman, a parent, a non union member who hails from corporate America. My only "skin in the game" is seeing my tax dollars disappear. I don't enjoy seeing my money transferred to private entities who think they can run a school, nor do I relish watching area schools open and close like check-cashing stores. If I want to invest in privatized education, I will. I want my tax dollars to go towards public education as I'm told they do.
My only motivation is to be a voice for all children who cannot be heard. Parents of America's only focus is children. We no longer choose to sit in ringside seats and witness endless bouts. Our children. Our schools. Our voices.
Follow Rita M. Solnet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ritacolleen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rita-m-solnet/whos-kidding-who-with-the_b_820509.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=uopx#sb=1169570,b=facebook
by Rita Solnet
I summarized Florida's Education Summit yesterday indicating that the event may have moved us a step forward towards genuine dialogue on education reform. We are certainly better off than if the summit never occurred!
What we haven't looked at -- as a state or nation -- is the big picture on some of these proposed reforms. Let's take a step back and away from the intense debate and ask this question:
Who are these reform initiatives really intended for?
The triumvirate of reforms being aggressively pushed right now are: 1) ending teacher tenure; 2) merit pay based on standardized test scores; and, 3) closing schools/firing staffs.
1) How will ending a teacher's right to due process (consistently mischaracterized as lifetime employment) help to improve the quality of education for children? Short-termers will teach without mentors or seasoned teachers to assist them? Who will you attract to the teaching profession when due process is gone? Corporate America has due process with upper management levels on day one of employment.
2) Merit pay will merely ratchet up the stakes surrounding standardized tests even more. High stakes on tests -- your pay or job riding on one test -- increase the dependency on mind-numbing bubble tests. That doesn't enrich the curriculum. In fact, it narrows it and creates more weeks of test prep, drill and practice.
3) How does closing neighborhood schools help improve the quality of education? Even when the handful of a few good charters acquire rights to open up, many children whose English is a second language or who are dubbed "hard to teach" are left in the dust of the closed school. That's reality versus rhetoric, Real world versus propaganda.
None of the reforms being touted and legislated in some states will truly enhance the quality of education. Isn't that what we set out to accomplish? When, where and why did we take a wrong turn?
Instead, this grand illusion of three reforms impedes improvement to public education. Hidden under the smokescreen of "tough love" reforms, these initiatives are destroying public education in our nation. Celebrities signed on to this front and the media bought it, hook, line and sinker.
Let's call a charade, a charade.
These reforms are specifically intended to acquire power or control over unions. Some may think that's the right fight. Some may think that's the wrong fight. But many will agree it's being played out in the wrong ring -- the classroom. The children of our nation, particularly in impoverished areas, are the ones being sucker punched.
Take your fight outside of the classroom! Settle it across a negotiation table or in a conference room or challenge each other to duels. Take a step back and realize that's what this has been reduced to. Then, for the love of all that's good and holy, please take this feud out of the classroom. These particular initiatives will cause irreparable damage to the future of our children. Don't let this administration be remembered as the one that sacrificed children's futures to seek revenge on unions.
Ending tenure reduces the candidate pool; merit pay further narrows the curriculum; and closing schools and firing staffs leaves many children in impoverished areas without a choice and devoid of hope.
I'm a business woman, a parent, a non union member who hails from corporate America. My only "skin in the game" is seeing my tax dollars disappear. I don't enjoy seeing my money transferred to private entities who think they can run a school, nor do I relish watching area schools open and close like check-cashing stores. If I want to invest in privatized education, I will. I want my tax dollars to go towards public education as I'm told they do.
My only motivation is to be a voice for all children who cannot be heard. Parents of America's only focus is children. We no longer choose to sit in ringside seats and witness endless bouts. Our children. Our schools. Our voices.
Follow Rita M. Solnet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ritacolleen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rita-m-solnet/whos-kidding-who-with-the_b_820509.html?ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=uopx#sb=1169570,b=facebook
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