RAVITCH: Ed Sec Arne Duncan BOOED by education researchers [View all]

[yurbud]

Researchers in any field aren't exactly the most rowdy people, so this is really saying something.

Real research and teachers' experience are being ignored for top down corporations before kids policies backed business buzzwords and BS.

The quote from Mayor Bloomberg, who is using his money to force corporate friendly education reform and get himself elected and re-elected sums up the state of our democracy. When asked how the people could hold him accountable, he said, "They can boo me at parades."

A "Let them eat cake" statement like that tells you how profoundly corrupt our political system has become and how drastic a correction it needs.

Obama had window of opportunity to change this with true reforms with the support of the people, but he squandered it.

Eventually, the broad middle class (or what's left of it) is going to figure out how to wrest power from the dangerously morally bankrupt financial elite, and they might not have as much left as they would have if they had let (or told) Obama to do more to fix the mess they made.

I did not go to the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, so was not aware of what is described in this post. Jennifer Jennings says that Arne Duncan was booed when he spoke, and she apologized to Secretary Duncan for the behavior of her fellow researchers.

Why was Secretary Duncan booed, and should AERA (or anyone else) apologize for the booing?
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Booing is the behavior of the powerless. Educators are angry--and Jennings knows this--because of the top-down, authoritarian way in which Duncan has imposed policies that are bad for children, ruinous for teachers, and harmful to the quality of education. Jennings also knows that Duncan holds all the power. Educators may write blogs, opinion pieces, books, and research studies, and they will be completely ignored by Duncan. To say the least, he is uninterested in dialogue and unwilling to change his hardened belief that his policies are successful, no matter what anyone says.[/font]

In New York City, our mayor proudly announced that the public should hold him accountable for improving the public schools. After he spent $100 million or so to win a new term, someone in the press asked Mayor Bloomberg how the public could hold him accountable. He answered: "They can boo me at parades."

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