Ed Reformer's blog slams John Oliver's brilliant show bashing ed reform.

[madfloridian]

For background.

This video from John Oliver's HBO show has been posted here several times without too much attention. It's a great piece and has been getting lots of attention on other social media.

But the Education Post, a multi-million dollar blog run with reformer money has really taken John Oliver on.

From Anthony Cody's Living in Dialogue website:

Poor John Oliver.

Poor John Oliver. After he did a segment on the insanity of our nation’s testing machine, the field of education’s only multi-million dollar blog, The Education Post, has taken after him with a vengeance. Oliver joins others with the nerve to question the nation’s obsession with standardized tests in being declared an enemy of the poor. (See this post from December for more background on Education Post)

First we got a plaintive “Dear John” letter from someone named Valentina Korkes. Ms. Korkes is “Deputy Director of Policy” at Education Post, and worked for two and a half years for StudentsFirst as a Legislative Projects Manager. Korkes complains to Oliver that he “broke her heart” when he failed to point out the many wonderful ways that “testing and accountability are good for kids.” (Students First is Michelle Rhee's baby.

And if John Oliver was not devastated enough by this kick to the gut, yesterday Peter Cunningham added his scorn. According to Cunningham, Oliver “throws poor kids under the bus,” by taking the side of their enemies, and failing to enumerate the many benefits of tests. His utterly humorless post concludes:

John Oliver sides with the comfortable bureaucrats, self-serving union leaders, and the complacent middle class that abdicates any responsibility for extending the American Dream beyond their own insular worlds.

As Peter Greene points out, there is one central flaw in this indictment. We have ruled our school system by the accountability systems chosen by these reformers now since 2002. And where can they point to school systems that have been greatly improved?

[randome]

1. Um...John Oliver was spot on, as he usually is.

All this 'standardized' crap isn't teaching our children anything other than how to 'fit in', which is not how you 'build' creative minds.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]All things in moderation, including moderation.[/center][/font][hr]

[KamaAina]

2. He wasn't bashing ed reform. He was bashing standardized testing.

Why are the ed deformers so wedded to standardized testing? Is it that important to them that Neil Bush et al. get to skim off billion$$$ from the system?

[madfloridian]

12. They control the testing. They control which schools fail.

That's power.

[KamaAina]

13. Gotcha.

[liberal_at_heart]

3. "Throws poor kids under bus"? WTF? If poor kids don't score well enough on their precious tests

their school lose money and their teachers receive bad evaluations. How is that not throwing poor kids under the bus?

[Johonny]

4. John nails it: The test numbers are in and they have failed to extend the American Dream period

and while John's metrics may seem unfair, short sighted, and not demonstrably conclusive if the shoe fits then eat it. More to the point his metric is the same metric used to justify these pointless tests way back in 2002. John Oliver's show is incredible.

[Wilms]

5. Glad they're upset. n/t

[Aerows]

6. John Oliver

is pissing off all of the right people.

[madfloridian]

15. Yes, he is.

I love it.

[Adrahil]

7. My daughter spent a solid 5 weeks this year either testing or preparing for tests.

That's about 14% of the school year. Tell me again that testing is helping her and her school.

[AtomicKitten]

8. Saw it. His summarization was excellent.

Common Core is some crazy bullshit.

No Democrat should be supporting it.

[Starry Messenger]

9. Another of Michelle Rhee's creatures went after him all week on twitter too.

https://twitter.com/ericlerum

It must be great to tackle education by trolling celebrities all day at work. I want that paycheck.

[madfloridian]

10. Oh yuck. I found his arguments tired and worn.

and annoying.

[Starry Messenger]

11. They must think they can win this argument by wearing everyone down.

[madfloridian]

14. Just about only public figure listening to and reading ed bloggers.

He's well-informed.

[A Little Weird]

16. His piece was spot on

I only wish his show wasn't on a premium channel, more people need to see it.