Teachers from Hawaii and New York sound off in righteous rants about Arne's ed reform.

Alan Isbell is a fourth-grade teacher at the Wailuku Elementary School in Wailuku, Hawaii. He is a delegate from the Hawaii State Teachers Association at this week's National Education Association convention in Denver.

School reform is just another advertising campaign

No Child Left Behind. Race to the Top. Everything's Better with Blue Bonnet on It.

Notice the similarities between government education reform programs and other advertising campaigns? They both have catchy slogans. They both employ exaggeration, statistical deception, and cockamamie claims to sell their products. As a result, many in high places make hay, assumedly without experiencing a twinge of guilt over the campaign's spewing of lies.

Thousands of teachers have converged upon Denver this week for the National Education Association's annual convention. A great many of those educators, when it comes to government reforms in education, are mad as hell, and are not taking it anymore.

....Why? Because it is so much political doggerel. Teachers know it. Principals know it. District superintendents know it. The emperor wears no clothes.

The emperor referred to here is none other than U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

And from New York a blog called Opine I Will.

Yes, I do quote education bloggers. Of course I do. They blog about education because they know what they are talking about....unlike the mainstream corporate media spouting talking points from billionaire reformers.

Ashamed to be a teacher today

Today was the first day I was ever ashamed to be a teacher.

Today I finished administering the sixth day of New York State Common Core assessments. I was a facilitator in a process that made my 10 year old students struggle,to the point of frustration, to complete yet another 90 minute test. I sat by as I watched my students attempt to answer questions today that were beyond their abilities. I knew the test booklets I put in front of them contained questions that were written in a way that 95% of them had no chance of solving. I even tried to give my students a pep talk, in hopes of alleviating their angst, when I knew damn well they didn’t stand a chance. Today I was part of the problem.

As I watched my students, I was angry that my efforts to stop this madness were not successful. I was angry at my students’ parents for not opting out their children. I was angry at my administrators for not stepping up to the plate and attempting to end this madness. I was angry at Governor Cuomo, NY Education Commissioner King, the Board of Regents, my state senator, my state assemblyman, President Obama, and even my state union. I was angry that my students were victims in the abusive game to drive a political agenda.

I lost it today. I lost a little bit of my self esteem. I lost my faith in my Party. I lost my faith in my ability to protect my students. I lost my faith in our future.

I watched my students valiantly attempt math questions that most adults could not answer. These questions were wordy, and purposely confusing in a warped way to prove some vulgar point about our public education system. Historically, my students excel on standardized tests, often finishing near the top of our district and state. Today I witnessed , no I was part of!! students enduring an abusive situation.

And also the words of the former assistant Education Secretary under George HW Bush.

We are living in an era when the very idea of public education is under attack, as are teachers' unions and the teaching profession. Let's be clear: these attacks and the power amassed behind them are unprecedented in American history. Sure, there have always been critics of public schools, of teachers, and of unions. But never before has there been a serious and sustained effort to defund public education, to turn public money over to unaccountable private hands, and to weaken and eliminate collective bargaining wherever it still exists. And this effort is not only well-coordinated but funded by billionaires who have grown wealthy in a free market and can't see any need for regulation or unions or public schools.

In the past, Democratic administrations and Democratic members of Congress could be counted on to support public education and to fight privatization. In the past, Democrats supported unions, which they saw as a dependable and significant part of their base.

This is no longer the case. Congress is about to pass legislation to expand funding of charter schools, despite the fact that they get no better results than public schools and despite the scandalous misuse of public funds by charter operators in many states.

Diane Ravitch at Huffington Post