When the party's top leaders do not respect teachers, how can we expect children to do so?

[madfloridian]

How can we expect parents to treat teachers respectfully if the Department of Education and its leader, Arne Duncan, are plotting to get rid of public schools and their teachers. They plan to replace them with privately run schools that are financed publicly.

It is like a vicious circle, a self-fulfilling prophecy. Treat public school teachers poorly, take away their resources and give them to charter schools.....and demand they produce results.

Children now are seeing the very highest leaders in the country actually take delight when schools doing poorly are closed down.

Last week, the New York City Department of Education pushed through a decision to close 19 high schools. With the encouragement of the "Race to the Top," we will surely see similar closings across the nation, hundreds or perhaps thousands of them. Entrepreneurs cheer when public schools close, as new space opens up for their ventures in philanthropy and profits.

It is odd that school leaders feel triumphant when they close schools, as though they were not responsible for them. They enjoy the role of executioner, shirking any responsibility for the schools in their care. Every time a school is closed, those at the top should hang their heads in shame for their inability or refusal to offer timely assistance. Instead they exult in the failure of schools that are entrusted to their stewardship.

It is the responsibility of the administration to "fix" the schools that need it.....not to turn them over to private companies.

It's a charade.

.."This is a great and terrible charade. It is not about improving education or helping kids. It is about producing data to demonstrate that small schools are better than large ones and that charters are better than regular public schools. The destruction of neighborhood public schools is merely collateral damage, though it may also be a goal of free-market zealots. The neediest kids will continue to be pushed out and bounced around until they give up. And the data will get better and better until the day comes when the DOE runs out of large high schools to close.

It is about free market schools. In fact many educators believe that the words "school choice" are code words for turning public schools over to private companies. These companies are well-organized, have loads of money, and they form parent groups and pretend they are grassroots.

Are the words "school choice" public code words for the movement to privatize public education?

"School choice" is the public code word for the political movement to privatize public education in the U.S., but the movement's real agenda is made clear by its ideological vanguard. The Cato Institute, a Washington-based libertarian think tank, explicitly advocates privatization in its school choice policy statement:

"Classical liberals seek education policies that will empower parents and clear the path for entrepreneurial activity. We envision a day when state-run schools give way to a dynamic independent system of schools competing to meet the needs of every American child. ("Education and Child Policy: School Choice")"

The progress of the school choice movement in the U.S. is monitored and reported on annually by The Heritage Foundation, another conservative Washington-based think tank that is at the vanguard of the privatization movement.

I remember a time when before I retired from teaching when parents demanded their children respect and obey the teachers. They usually took the side of the teacher when there were problems.

It changed as time went on. Parents were empowered by the new policies, and teachers were told to satisfy them. We were told the children and parents were our "clients", and their satisfaction would be the goal. How does one teach that way.

When public school teachers are fired or laid off, when public schools are closed affecting communities and their ties to one another...it affects the children.

They see it as public schools teachers being "bad", even when that is far from the truth.

But the terrible charade is necessary so they can continue the firings and closures and privatization.