Reply #16: Oh Noes!!1! This is hugh!1!! I'm series!!!!1

[Rage for Order]

"And then there is that all-important way to control the districts themselves...mayoral control. Forgot the elected school board..get a mayor in that you like and give him the power."

Yeah, forget the elected school board. Get a mayor that you like who... is not elected? Maybe the motivation is to be able to hold one person directly accountable, for better or worse. When a multi-member school board is in charge they can all point fingers at each other when something doesn't work, or individual members can assure us that they are in favor of changes to improve education; it's the other people on the board who are dragging their feet.

"In the same article, the Post broke the news that Bill Gates had “secretly bankrolled” Learn-NY, a group campaigning to overturn a term-limit law so that Michael Bloomberg could run for a third term as New York City mayor. Bloomberg’s main argument for deserving another term was that his education reform agenda (identical to the Gates-Broad agenda) was transforming city schools for the better. Gates put $4 million of his personal money into Learn-NY."

Yes, it was so secret that when the NY Post asked a Bill Gates spokesman about it he lied and tried to cover it up. Wait, no, that's not what happened...the spokesperson http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/item_ekjA6OeXIrxZjDATHPbkuJ">"confirmed the donation and the approximate size." It was obviously super-secret! :tinfoilhat: The same article goes on to say: "In related news, Bloomberg defended budgeting 8 percent raises for teachers over the next two years in spite of tough economic times, as The Post reported yesterday. "It would be irresponsible when all of the other unions have gotten for us not to put the pattern into the budget," he said. Wow, what a vicious attack on teachers! An 8% raise in spite of tough economic times. The nerve of that Bloomberg!

Then, to get a clearer picture of US education we go to...the UK's Guardian newspaper. Surely they understand the dynamics of the US education system better than US newspapers!

""The big game-changer for us, however, in terms of both formula and competitive programmes, revolves around the issue of teacher quality … Nothing is more important and nothing has a greater impact on the quality of education than the quality and skill of the person standing in the front of the class – and there is so much that needs to change in the way that America recruits, trains, supports and manages our teachers."

How is this statement controversial? That is, unless one thinks that the way that we currently recruit and train teachers cannot be improved; it's perfect as it is now.

..."Ultimately, this PR campaign by corporate and political leaders has been effective, even if it remains inaccurate. Teacher quality represents only a small percentage of achievement, and there is little evidence that teacher quality is the greatest issue, or even one of the main problems, facing student achievement in public schools.

Did you catch that? The author stated "Teacher quality represents only a small percentage of achievement...". So which is it? Either teachers are vitally important, or they are marginal bit players on the education stage. You can't have it both ways.