If Arne Duncan Were Serious About Civil Rights:

[LWolf]

From Jim Horn's Schools Matter blog:

Yesterday corporate foundation stooge, Arne Duncan, was marched out to declare a commitment to civil rights enforcement that was absent during the reign of Bush II. And yet Duncan seems intent to apply a civil rights litmus test that even Bush would approve of, one that could not have been imagined by Gandhi or King or anyone else beyond the education policy roundtable of the corporate foundations: instead of looking to see if school systems are complying with Civil Rights Law, Duncan wants to use "outcomes" i. e. test scores to measure a school or system's level of civil rights compliance.

I'm glad to see someone finally calling out the propaganda that suggests that privatizing education is a solution to closing the "achievement gap."

Here are a few of Jim's much better suggestions. Too bad the Obama/Duncan weapon of public education destruction isn't listening.

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would end the use of testing policies that punish, humiliate, and separate the poor and the brown and the disabled from the rest of society;

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would develop policies to strengthen teaching in poor areas, rather than gutting professionalism by advocating for the use of cheap and highly unqualified teachers in urban charters;

But then, the whole standards and accountability movement has not been about Civil Rights; it's been a blatantly cynical manipulation in order to WIDEN class and economic gaps.

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would not ignore the accumulated research that shows clearly that the corporate charter schools that he advocates clearly intensify the resegregation of American schools;

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would be advocating for a humane and challenging whole curriculum for poor children, rather than years of basic reading and math that leave the neediest unprepared for work that requires thinking and for college;

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would work to end federal testing policies that exacerbate dropouts, pushouts, and turnoffs among children of the disenfranchised;

What's more, by scapegoating and excluding educators, the policies that would really make a difference for the most students are under the bus along with those educators:

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would actively support the development of hospitable and humane school environments, rather than the academic and behavioral lockdowns that now make schools look like low or even medium security penal institutions;

* If Duncan were serious about Civil Rights, he would acknowledge that schools alone will never close the achievement gap because of the poverty that he systematically and universally ignores with the diversionary data gathering and testing policies aimed at sustaining separation and containment of the oppressed.

More:

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/03/if-arne-duncan-were-serious-about-civil.html

I've got another 12 hour day at school today, so will be back to check on this thread, and respond, later tonight.

[madrchsod]

1. agree....he`s done such a fine job in chicago...

[LWolf]

6. Yes.

"Fine" enough to make one wonder how he ever ended up on any list for promotion.

[DailyGrind51]

13. His job in Chicago was to make conserva-dem Mayor Richard M. Daley look good.

[MadHound]

2. A sad statement when it is a Democratic administration that is tearing down our public school system

Not surprising any more, since it was a Democratic administration that tore down the social safety net. But sad nonetheless.

Hey, Arne, your boss isn't getting my vote in 2012 because of what YOU are doing.

[LWolf]

3. I'd like to hear that message sent

loud and clear from the NEA and the AFT. :(

[G_j]

9. Bush prepared the way

and now they are planning on carrying that torch to the finish line.

:mad:

[LWolf]

11. "Change" I don't believe in.

:(

[DonCoquixote]

4. I agree

Whether Duncan is doing this on purpose, or whether he really thinks he is doing a good thing (and he may be stupid enough to think he is) he is playing right into the hands of the Elite, who want public education outright destroyed. There is a faction of this country that sees educating people as a bad idea, period, and throw in the religious folk (including, sadly, Rev. Al Sharpton) and you have the makings for a system that will doom people to set roles, playing into the old delusion of "separate, but equal."

I mention Al because, sadly, in addition to the usual suspects (aka Confederates and other freepers) some minorities are buying into the idea of using charters to make all black or brown schools. You know what they say about the road to you know where. As Obama has taught us unwittingly, even if said schools produced people who were qualified (and Obama, for all his faults, is qualified for most jobs) they would still get passed up in favor of Mediocre products of White Schools (like Palin, W. and about half the memebers of the Senate.)

There is one question I do think needs to be addressed. Yes, some schools like like a war zone, but there is a question that needs asking; how do you deal with VIOLENT students. Note, I did not say rude, did not say disruptive even, I mean there is a problem with kids that kick/punch/stab/etc. It's one thing to say let's have a peaceful school, but how do you handle kids that will simply not allow that, and yet run behind the parents when caught?

[LWolf]

5. I like the idea

of very small schools, with high adult-student ratios. I also like the idea of "looping;" of keeping students with the same teacher for more than one year. It helps build relationships, closes the "cracks" that students slip through, and makes it much more difficult for students to get away with non-performance, bullying, etc..

Violent students need to be removed and placed somewhere that they will get intensive therapy and social training. In my opinion.

[slipslidingaway]

7. knr for teachers n/t

[LWolf]

10. Thanks.

We need your support.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. another K&R for teachers..and FREE QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. K/R