Florida wants 1 billion of Arne's 4. 3 billion to hire corporate consultants. Unbelievable.

[madfloridian]

From the Orlando Sentinel's Central Florida blogwatch.

Consultants would make out like bandits under Race to the Top

This really boggles the mind. Somehow I missed this in January.

I've been leafing through the state's application for federal Race to the Top funds and have come to a quick conclusion: This might be a good time to add the word "consultant" to your business card

..."Florida has asked for $1.1 billion of the $4.35 billion available nationwide in Race to the Top grants.

What immediately became clear when I scrolled through the state's proposed spending plan is that "consultants" will make out like bandits.

If the state gets the whole $1.1 billion it asked for (which some say is a very long shot), the Department of Education would spend half and school districts that agreed to take part would share half.

There's more.

To help districts set up new systems to evaluate teachers and administrators -- 60 consultants at a cost of $15 million.

To help districts figure out how to compensate teachers and administrators for getting better performance from students, the state plans to contract with 63 financial consultants at a cost of $45 million.

And there is $10.7 million for consultants to develop "lesson study tool kits" so teachers can study "effective lesson development."

Jim Horn at School Matters blog calls the new DOE stimulus program Race to the Trough.

That sounds pretty accurate to me.

I think that allocation of possible funds speaks so loudly for the corporate nature of the coming school reform....that there is little else that needs to be said.

They are going to spend 45 million to figure out how to get better performance from students.

I have a very good idea. It is an idea that won't cost a penny.

Just ask a teacher. And then demand that parents and students carry their share of the load.

[yurbud]

1. the corporate jackels are to education reform what child molesters are to sex ed

[ThomCat]

4. A very apt analogy.

:(

[yurbud]

5. except when they put their hands in kids pockets, they are just stealing their lunch money

and their education.

[Overseas]

2. Privatization reveals itself as wasteful once again.

Wish the public schools could get that funding instead.

And can't we get some consultants or interns to do the analysis pro bono?

[JCMach1]

3. Maybe I should change my party affiliation and get one of those contracts...

:sarcasm:


Un F'ing believable...

[Triana]

6. "Just ask a teacher. And then demand that parents and students carry their share of the load."

Oh but that would make too much sense! And it would make the parents DO THEIR JOB instead of just using school as a daytime babysitter that is expected to raise their children for them so they don't have to. Another suggestion would be to pay the teachers a decent salary - for once.

[liberalhistorian]

23. And yet there are plenty of people on this site who not only

are anti-teacher, but who complain about the "whining and wailing" of teachers when they're "treated and paid very well" and who, when confronted with the reality of what teaching is all about, not only refuse to believe it but continue to claim that they have no stress or problems in their work and that all the vacations, short hours and high pay should make them grateful and sit down and shut up. NO conception of their real duties. I was just arguing with one of those idiots today. There's no getting through to them and too many so-called "progressives" are the same way. No wonder no one wants to go into teaching anymore. I know I sure don't, having grown up with teachers.

[Hannah Bell]

7. who's going to provide these services? why, the very folks pushing for privatization, of course.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/02/turnaround-millions-mass-insight-and.html

[madfloridian]

8. "the anticipated failure rates on state assessments"

"Conservatives were angry and disappointed that school vouchers had once more been stripped out, but Gregg and others remained optimistic that in subsequent reauthorization of NCLB in 2007, vouchers would be an easier sell based on the private tutoring precedent and the anticipated failure rates on state assessments. The failure rates would provide the documentation to soften, and eventually eliminate, public resistance to school vouchers and private management companies."

Keep making the tests harder...so there is a larger failure rate. Amazing how they have done it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. They're constantly coming up with creative ways to transfer that

money to the cronies. It will all come to a stop with the charter schools once they force them to meet the same testing requirements as the public schools.

[YvonneCa]

10. Hey, I have and idea...why don't a bunch of...

...retired teachers (like us :7 ) form a consulting business and offer our services? :7

[cjbgreen]

11. Seriously

I'm sorry but I hate the idea of asking parents to do their share, why? Because poor children are not to blame for their parents, because now families need both members to work to just get by and because such an attitude only hurts children. We by that I mean educators need to focus on how we can work with children and create environments where learning can occur. The children who lucked out with parents who are not under enormous financial or medical strain will most likely do well in school. For those students born with disabilities or whose parents struggle every day to survive, those students need our support and not the blame of educators or corporate power. There is a sound research base on effective schools and what they look like. I know of no other group of professionals who are expected to do so much with so little time to adequately prepare. And when consultants are used lets make sure they know what they are talking about that they really have worked in a public school setting for a reasonable amount of time.

[madfloridian]

12. You said what? "but I hate the idea of asking parents to do their share"

I am sorry but I do not buy your argument that because both parents have to work that we must not demand from them and their kids.

The children are their responsibilities long before a teacher ever sees them. You appear to be taking all the burden off parents.

Then, of course, you might be joking...which I hope is the case.

[cjbgreen]

22. not joking

No one is suggesting that parents should not be responsible, but what happens when parents aren't and can't. Yes I do believe that educators need to teach all children. Yes the work is less complicated without the problems of poverty, homelessness, lack of medical care. Children don't get to pick their parents. We need to recognize that we serve a diverse population and that for many families the economics of the Bush administration and Reagan have created an enormous strain on all segments of our society. No one is saying that parents shouldn't do their best for children.

[madfloridian]

26. That's baloney. All parents can be responsible.

You are really reaching in your efforts to paint teachers in a bad light. Time to update my list.

[Jakes Progress]

18. But they would never hire someone with classroom experience

to work as a consultant. You would have to hide your years of experience and training about how children learn in order to get hired.

Besides. They already know who they are going to hire. The corporate lock is in.

[YvonneCa]

19. We could have a big safe in our consulting office...

...which is off limits to our 'customers'...and we could line the walls of the safe with documentation of our training and experience. ;) No one needs to know. :7

[roody]

13. Note to teachers.

Quick! Become consultants!

[YvonneCa]

20. We need to incorporate...

...NOW. :7

[Mithreal]

14. Race to the Trough - or - Race to the Bottom

Thanks for posting, Mad.

[Initech]

15. They'll probably wind up hiring these guys:

[Divine Discontent]

16. ugh... bastards....

[SutaUvaca]

17. Just arrrgghhh!

Everything, every freakin' thing that is supposed to be for the public good gets turned into a way to make the greedy even richer.

[cornermouse]

21. Well,

everyone knows that teachers are greedy, crooked liars. That's why they have to spend such outlandish amounts of money to sneak around checking up on them.

The above statement is sarcasm reserved for the Department of Education, our leaders, and their supporters who have clearly implied the above statement with their actions.

Seriously, I don't like the country they're building and I don't recognize the country I was born and grew up in any more. I keep thinking there are some very ugly principles or people pushing all this stuff and it appears to have one goal and one goal only.

By the way, K & R.

[ibegurpard]

24. They WANT to DISMANTLE public education

because if they control the curriculum they can raise obedient little corporate drones.

[jmowreader]

25. Madfloridian, what's Florida's justification for that large a request?

I cannot imagine having the balls to ask for a quarter of a four billion dollar fund.

[madfloridian]

27. I don't think they feel the need to justify it.

That's usually how it is here. There's a sense of entitlement.