And, Race to the Top is very bad policy.

the biggest disappointment to me

No good has come from Duncan's ideas.

messenger?

There are so many angry teachers it can't be healthy for the party.

Unfortunately there are not any Democrats who differ with Obama enough to speak up for teachers..

I have posted before one of my fears is what will the Democratic party platform be
on education for 2016?

It is crucial we get this turned around..so worrisome. We're talking about millions
of American children.

Obama has to know how this is turning out all wrong...he could do the right thing
and protect his legacy at the same time.

...please put on the glasses. Once you can ''see'' -- those kinds of questions won't even come up.

On occasion, like after the Arkansas Democratic Primary 2010,
this Administration has expressed open hostility and ridicule toward Organized LABOR.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024586209

One can NOT say he supports "Free Trade",
and supports Organized LABOR at the same time.
The two positions are not compatible.



You will know them by their WORKS.

Isn't this what Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been doing in Chicago?

Just you wait; someone will be along very soon, I'm sure, to explain how this is really not the president's fault, or that it doesn't mean what it clearly says, or that you're just affected with ODS, or you don't understand the subtleties of undermining union security agreements.

Or something. But it'll be really good. And then you'll be sorry.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Was thinking the same thing. But so be it. I never thought Democrats would go after public school teachers like this.

or Flip flops

I support education. That means I support teachers. Anyone who doesn't does not support my principles and I will not make excuses for them. There is no way to explain Duncan's actions away. He hasn't gone rogue and is not a leftover from the previous administration.

Arne has been allowed to publicly insult teachers with impunity. There is no excuse. Other Democratic leaders are failing to speak out in defense, and that angers me.

Duncan said, “This decision presents an opportunity for a progressive state with a tradition of innovation to build a new framework for the teaching profession that protects students’ rights to equal educational opportunities while providing teachers the support, respect, and rewarding careers they deserve,” A Republican couldnt have said it any more anti-union.

Carter so it has gone both ways.

However, it was Obama's chance to make amends, and he did it in a half assed way

Tell me how that nonsense from Duncan is any different. Doing away with due process for teachers is "supporting, respecting and rewarding" them.

Like, can they use this to get rid of teachers so that none of them ever get to reach their pensions? I am not all that worried about 3 year teachers. I am worried about 18 year teachers. There must be tremendous pressure on the School Administrators to make sure that no one gets a pension--the way there is in private industry, unless you have a good union or your side. Does this make it easier to get rid of someone right before they qualify for a pension?

Arne Duncan. He has made some good ones too, but Arne is one of the worst among some really bad picks. Arnie needs to go.

OK. Obama supporters.

Here is the question. Obama has had six years.

Tell me. What has he done to improve our public schools?

Tell me about it. If he has done anything at all, I haven't heard about it from his administration or the news media. Six years. Charter schools have replaced truly public schools. Has that improved anything?

I see bright kids in public schools who are so sick or so scared of taking tests that they don't even want to go to school any more.

Back in the 40s and 50s when I went to school, children who were bright enjoyed it. Teachers loved their students and their work.

How do the charter schools compare to the old-fashioned public schools in terms of those test scores?

The problem today is not in the schools. It's in the homes of the children. Parents are not preparing their children to learn, to sit and obey in the classroom.

My mother told me the other day that when we were children, she read to us every night (I remember it clearly. The Little Train That Could, Lassie Come Home, Bambi (we cried).), and when we were small, she had two reading sessions every night, one with the two of us who were older and one with the two little ones. One of my sisters was dyslexic. Never mind. My mother pointed her finger at each word as she read to us, moving our eyes from left to right, left to right. My dyslexic sister reads and reads and reads. That's something a parent can do best -- read bed-time stories, instill a love of learning, develop a child's natural curiosity (like talking about how hard those scary spiders work in the garden) and assist with a child's special needs.

What children need in the classroom is secure teachers who can devote themselves to loving their students and to developing lesson plans that respond to their student's interests and community and world events.

What is not needed is teachers who are harassed and afraid for their jobs.

If children cannot learn in school, parents need to criticize their own child-rearing methods.

Here is how the classrooms of the 1940s and 1950s looked. The children who went to those schools became the rocket scientists, surgeons, judges and leaders of the next generation. Teachers did not meet the academic standards they meet today, but they infused students with a love of learning.

Leave our teachers alone.

To honor our teachers and shame Arnie Duncan:

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2011/08/26/art-entertainment/rockwells-school-teachers.html
Happy Birthday, Miss Jones
By Norman Rockwell
March 17, 1956

Is "teacher" tenure different from "professor" tenure? Some of the arguments say teachers with tenure "can never" be fired for (insert reason). I can't believe that, don't think "can never" even applies to the pope. I'm mucked up with this.

Not sure what it means to professors.

communities. Teachers are the scapegoats of our time.

Some of our best teachers teach in inner-city schools. Many of our worst students attend those schools. Some responsibility has to be borne by the parents who send their children to school with the attitude that the teachers are the worst. I've had friends who taught in troubled areas and who were master teachers. In one case, my friend won awards for her innovative teaching at the high school level. She had to leave teaching because one of her students injured her -- in the classroom.

When my children were in school, our local high school was named one of the worst in our city. My daughter attended that school and then graduated from college Phi Beta Kappa. The parents' complaints are absurd. Make sure your child is prepared for first grade, and if your child can't sit still long enough and can't yet obey, hold your child back a year. A child's maturity is everything when it comes to education.

Read to your children EVERY NIGHT. No exceptions. Last thing your child should be thinking about at night is how wonderful it is to read. Take your child to museums. In most cities, that is very easy. Teach your child to take responsibility. No excuses. If our child has a learning disability, work with his/her teachers to help your child. Make a pest of yourself but do it in a friendly way.

Teachers in our schools are really well trained.

Unfortunately, we don't train parents at all. What we need is more parent-education.

My mother used to say that the worst thing you could do for a child who was not doing well in school was to criticize the teacher. When you criticize the teacher, you are teaching your child not to take responsibility. Hey! We have wonderful public libraries. And today we even have the internet which is available in most libraries. Many of the best educated adults in our society got a lot of their education in the public library. There is no excuse for a child who can't learn in school according to his ability. And the best students are not always what test administrators would call the "brightest" or most "gifted," but simply the hardest-working.

That's my rant on education.

I remember not long ago when parents did not blame teachers first. Most took time to get to the bottom of a situation.

When only the teacher is blamed the student is off the hook for accountability.

Learning is an equation that involves a mysterious factor that cannot be analyzed mathematically and may or may not show up in test scores. The teacher's task is to instill a love of questioning and learning. The tests that are now being given in classrooms across the country do not measure the love of questioning and learning.

The capacity to take responsibility for one's own failures is a character trait that we need to instill in our children. If your child is failing math, you need to work with your child so that your child stubbornly masters what is difficult. Your child may never be a math genius, but learning to take responsibility, learning to work and work and not giving up -- those are character traits that will be more important to your child than math but may be, depending on the child and how difficult math is for the child, the most important lesson he or she learns in his or her life.

A big part of intelligence in my opinion is determination, not taking failure for an answer.

Thanks for the thread, madfloridian.

Thanks for the link.

BFEE wants it all.

on his first day in office. Instead he ramped it up.

I predict the president will get big money from big insurance AND the school profiteers in 2017

Or...maybe teachers are all racists.

I was quoting from them, so I was not free to change their horrible spelling. They should have taken time to look up the right spelling. Inexcusable.

Bad, bad choice by Obama to choose this clown.

But I guess this is the direction Obama wants to take our education system.

I agree with others on this thread, this man needs to resign! This is not good, not good at all!