General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy can't we get rid of incompetent Arne Duncan?
Does anyone here have anything positive to say about his performance ????.... Why is Obama so blind? As the wife of a second grade teacher who busts his ass in a poverty stricken school, I can say Arne Duncan's words and ideas are seen by teachers as a destructive force, degrading them and robbing our public schools to transfer money into Pearson's coffers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-stanford/arne-duncan-pearson-testing_b_4648554.html
Great quotation from the article:
"Herein lies the conflict that separates Duncan, Friedman and Pearson from parents and teachers. They think the solution is, in Duncan's words, "new and better assessments" based on the assumption standardized tests provide the best measure for whether our children are learning. Most teachers and an increasingly vocal number of parents believe that excessive testing eats up classroom time better spent writing term papers, conducting science experiments, or discussing literature."
jwirr
(39,215 posts)QC
(26,371 posts)Chiquitita
(752 posts)Man, it totally, totally sucks for teachers and students. There is a dismantling of education going on that is going to haunt us for years. When you break people, break communities, it takes a lot to rebuild.
QC
(26,371 posts)to put those cronies in positions where they can't do much damage.
You're right about the damage Arne is doing here, but he still has the president's full confidence.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)A whole lot of that Chicago crowd hate public schools. Rahm, for instance.
Chiquitita
(752 posts)Are they applying some sort of local dynamic to the whole country?
Erose999
(5,624 posts)course the GOOP is just as bad or worse.
Its gonna take a popular uprising to get rid of these asshole "reformers" like Michelle Rhee and Arnie Duncan. None of these idiots have figured out that you get what you pay for when it comes to education. And if you keep making cuts and keep treating educatiors like second class citizens....
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)Rahm & Arne surely know that. It only leaves the question of who's paying whom for what.
There's a helluva lot of money in the privatization racket, be it schools or prisons. If you want the best of both worlds, you just set up a pipeline from your private school to your private prison.
Chiquitita
(752 posts)I recognize you're right. But I've been an activist since things have gotten really rough and I need to fight...
No one has teachers' backs -- and ultimately, most teachers can leave the profession if they must (to preserve their health and sanity). But the students my husband teaches can't leave. And we are just all supposed to throw up our hands and let the kids get chewed up and spit out by Rahm and Arne?
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Precisely.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)he serves at the pleasure of the president. This means what he is doing must be what the president wants.
raging moderate
(4,305 posts)My qualifications are almost exactly analogous to Arnie's qualifications for the Head of the Department of Education.
Obviously, I should have been hired. My mother was a legal secretary, and I used to visit her workplace sometimes. Also, I studied about laws in various classes all the way through graduate school.
For some reason, the White House never replied to my application.
Chiquitita
(752 posts)He is a HUGE FAILURE if our goal to make quality education more accessible and raise all children's educational level.
I want some of the Obama cheerleaders here to explain to me why, oh why, if education is the key to everything just and good (and it is) our President is failing us miserably here.
I got the letter on the 16th from Michelle where she says: "That's why Barack is working every single day to expand opportunities to every single young person in America. And that's why we're working to rally the country around his "North Star" goal that by 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world."
But she doesn't mention "Teachers" in the entire text...
She says that kids suffering under poverty just need "someone to believe in them" -- come on! Teachers believe in their students every day. That's why they work 60 hours a week for low pay and no respect -- because they believe. BUT THEY GET NO SUPPORT.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)He knows nothing about education and since everyone knows that to be a fact, the question is 'why was he appointed to a position to oversee something he knows nothing about' and the answer is obvious. He is continuing Bush's Business model designed to move Public Funds into private hands. NCLB had nothing to do with education. We elected Democrats to fix that disaster and all we got was an enhancement of it.
Chiquitita
(752 posts)I live in one of the poorest counties with the most wealth inequality in the South. We just got a race for the top grant of 51 million and Governor Deal of Georgia is going to waste it on Kindergarten assessment. The cynicism and desperation among teachers is high -- no money going into to actual teaching support. What's to be assessed if there is no time for teaching? Truly, it is driving teachers to their wits' end.
So, what's in it for Obama?
Erose999
(5,624 posts)At least the GA Dems aren't running fucking Roy Barnes again. Barnes and his double-crossing of the teachers was what gave the GOP the governors office to start with.
Chiquitita
(752 posts)I'm working on a PTO/Student led walk out in my kid's HS.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)way to stop it is for the people to fight hard against them. Nationwide strikes, they can't fire everyone, parents refusing to send their children to schools that are not educating them. Even if it took a year it would be worth it to defeat these thieves and crooks who are stealing this country's future.
I wish we could do it. What would it take? What kind of organizing? What the model for universal strike in education or anything? We should study this.
Chiquitita
(752 posts)We should get a group together here and start some actions.
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)polichick
(37,152 posts)zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Simple as that. He wasn't an issue in the campaign and now Obama isn't running for anything.
Rex
(65,616 posts)Administrations let worthless people keep their jobs and in some cases keep holdovers from other administrations. I think it has to do with knowing the right people, despite how incompetent someone is - doesn't seem to matter anymore.
TheKentuckian
(25,026 posts)How do you remove someone doing an excellent job of getting their job done when it is a job that is the express will of the boss and high on the agenda of the "stakeholder" class?
Duncan's performance is design rather than bug as far as I can tell. I despise that but what else can be case? It isn't like this wasn't the an all the way, people were calling it before the jump.
progressoid
(49,991 posts)Unfortunately, I think he's here for the duration.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)As a mom of a special education student I am tired of this crap.
Response to Chiquitita (Original post)
Chiquitita This message was self-deleted by its author.
1000words
(7,051 posts)Chiquitita
(752 posts)but, this one makes too much sense.
bbgrunt
(5,281 posts)Chiquitita
(752 posts)and it just shows that at DU there isn't enough action anymore.
frylock
(34,825 posts)and that's what really matters.
Squinch
(50,955 posts)Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Is the President so easily duped?
KG
(28,751 posts)LWolf
(46,179 posts)People who think he ever wanted to actually do something good for public education are blind.
I listened, and I knew in '08 that an Obama administration would not be friendly to students, to public education, or to public school teachers. Arne Duncan is still there because he's doing exactly what Obama wants him to do.
pa28
(6,145 posts)His job is to privatize public education and that's exactly what he's doing.