Thank you, Raul Grijalva: Obama’s Market-Based Policies Endanger Public Education. [View all]

[madfloridian]

It is so refreshing to see a Democrat having the courage to speak out about this harmful policy.

A Free Market in Schooling?

Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He sees right through the Obama education policy and recognizes that it is a continuation of George W. Bush’s failed No Child Left Behind.

In this astonishingly candid interview with Josh Eidelson in Salon, Rep. Grijalva lacerates Race to the Top, high-stakes testing, privatization, and the other features of the Obama education policy.

Rep. Grijalva recognizes that the Obama program is now driven by financial interests:

Obama’s education secretary is “a market-based person,” his education policy manifests a “market-based philosophy,” and “we continue to starve public schools,” the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus charged in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

Here is more from Josh Eidelson's interview with Grijalva at Salon.

“A self-fulfilling conflict of interest”: Charter schools, testing mania, and Arne Duncan

The privatization of education “began as driven by ideology, but now it’s getting momentum because of the financial aspects,” Rep. Raul Grijalva argued to Salon.
The Arizona Democrat called charter schools “a step towards” privatization, called the Chicago teachers’ strike a “necessary pushback” and warned of a “self-fulfilling conflict of interest.” A condensed version of our conversation follows.

Interviewer: You were the first congressman to echo a call from the Network for Public Education for hearings on standardized testing, saying it’s critical to hold hearings on what you called “mandatory testing and privatization efforts” and “the dismantling of public education.” What do you want those hearings to accomplish?

Grijalva: I understand accountability. I don’t have a problem with testing as a teaching tool, to help to guide the improvement in children. But what’s happened is the standardized testing has become the end-all-be-all in terms of curriculum, in terms of how you prepare students for the future.

He calls for a hearing.

A whole hearing on testing, the culture of testing, and what it is producing for public education.

What you see … is a real move toward the privatization of schools, based on what test results are. A school doesn’t do well, a school doesn’t do well again, then suddenly there is a movement to either let that school be run by private management or let the students then go somewhere else — usually to a private charter school.

Thank you for paying attention to the outcries of teachers, Raul Grijalva.

There is no doubt at all now that Arne Duncan with the apparent approval of President Obama is fulfilling the dreams of Newt Gingrich for Free Market schools.

From 2009:

Newt Gingrich teaming up with Arne Duncan for an education road trip.

For the last twenty years, we have tried to improve education while accepting the fundamental principles of a failed system, guarded by the education bureaucrats and teachers unions. We must now transform math and science education or fall behind. It really is that simple.
Source: Gingrich Communications website, www.newt.org, “Issues” Sep 1, 2007

Introduce competition among schools and teachers

We should apply the free enterprise system to our education system by introducing competition among schools, administrators, and teachers. Our educators should be paid based on their performance and held accountable based on clear standards with real consequences. These ideas are designed to stimulate thinking beyond the timid “let’s do more of the same” that has greeted every call for rethinking math and science education.
Source: Gingrich Communications website, www.newt.org Dec 1, 2006

Arne Duncan started off his time in office by threatening California if it did not comply with his wishes.

U.S. education secretary is expected to withhold millions of dollars in education stimulus money if the state doesn't comply with his demand.
By Jason Felch and Jason Song
July 24, 2009
California could lose out on millions of federal education dollars unless legislators change a law that prevents it from using student test scores to measure teachers' performance, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is expected to announce in a speech today.

Now that kind of high-stakes testing that overrides teacher judgement, daily grades, classroom tests, and student portfolios is taking over the country.

It is refreshing to finally see a Democrat speak out in a common sense way for public education. I hope Raul Grijalva does not get on our bad list now....because what he is doing takes courage.