Clean sweep of teachers in Senate parent trigger bill
Take a look at this Google doc of the newly revised Parent Empowerment bill, notable for the clean sweep of any mention of teachers or educators. See my blog yesterday on the odd changes to this bill.
Sponsored by House Majority Whip Edward Lindsey, R-Atlanta, the bill initially had been called the Parent and Educator Empowerment bill, but you can’t find the words “teacher” or “educator” any longer. (I have sent Lindsey a note for comment, but have not heard from him.)
In its original form, House Bill 123 allowed a majority of teachers and parents in a low-performing school to petition to the school board for new management of their schools.
The bill, which passed the House, was discussed in a Senate subcommittee today. However, the subcommittee could not vote the bill out as it lacked a quorum at the time.
State Sen. Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, explained why he excised teachers from the bill. He noted that teachers are not part of the parent trigger laws in the seven states that have such legislation, which is correct. Legislatures in Florida and Oklahoma are also now considering parent trigger laws
The existing parent trigger laws speak only to parents triggering a takeover of a failing school. However, those existing laws also don’t speak to parents at any schools, even high performing ones, seeking management conversion to charters, which is a key provision in the proposed Georgia law.
One point that Millar raised would seem to have some validity: If teachers go to the school board to petition for a management takeover, they could be subject to retaliation if the petition fails and they have to go back to work for the same bosses.
Lindsey addresses that possibility in his bill by allowing the teacher vote to seek a management change to be a secret ballot. However, the bill requires that a majority of teachers support the petition. The argument can be made that the school management would be angry at the entire staff or, at the very least, suspicious of all of them.
Some theories making the rounds in the Gold Dome for why teachers were struck from the bill: The bill has opposition, and this issue could be volatile enough to derail it. Teachers were only included in the bill initially to gain passage in the House. The teacher petition takeover smacked too much of teacher unions so the Senate eliminated it.
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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102 comments Add your comment
Rob
March 20th, 2013
2:47 pm
Astropig you are somewhat dense.
All teachers are not Democrats. Heck, you are lucky to find a teacher that is one in my school. I’m a Libertarian. But I do have training in education…which I’m guessing most parents, whom you think are the saviors of education, do not. I don’t let the barber operate on my kidneys….
William Casey
March 20th, 2013
2:50 pm
@CLUTCHCARGO: The Republican Party of 2013 bears NO resemblance to the Republican Party that FDR had to work with. Bob Taft is probably spinning in his grave over the antics of today’s “Republicans.” Work “with” Republicans? Not likely. Republicans today expect others to work FOR them for the lowest salary possible. No, thanks!
Typical
March 20th, 2013
2:52 pm
It doesn’t matter, Me, whether people’s vigor lasts long enough to actually accomplish school improvement. That isn’t this bill’s point. This bill is a Trojan Horse designed to get more public funds into private charter school corporations’ hands. Once the school has gone charter, it will be difficult to return back to the regular school system. The sad thing is that statistically, privately run charter schools are not as effective as public schools with similar demographics. The sadder thing is that if the charter school is forced to accept all students, and cannot expel them for behavioral or academic reasons, their record is pretty abysmal. People see the words ‘charter school’ and think ‘private school’. It wouldn’t be that way. Do you know of any private school that has to take any student who walks through the door and cannot remove them short of an act of congress? It will be too late when people figure out the game. This is al part of a long slow play to get taxpayers to fund private school tuition for schools most of their kids will never be able to attend.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
3:03 pm
touching as it is that red meat Fran would allegedly care about us….
his point is so much hooey.
reality is the sort of administrators who would launch reprisals ALREADY know who their critics are. they have their favorites spying for them, and actively sewing discord among the rank and file.
secret ballot or not, the sort of admin who would launch reprisals will do so anyway. its Lenin’s old concept of breaking eggs to make omlets
Rob
March 20th, 2013
3:09 pm
Republicansdon’tlead is right.
The Democrats of Georgia have, since the 40’s, been DINO’s. Democrats in name only. Their politics have always been conservative, not liberal. The only true liberal was Jimmy Carter, and he won because he acted like a racist conservative in his campaign. This is exactly why you, Aspiago, should have no influence over what is taught. You don’t know the history of the state’s politics. The small scale change came in the 80’s to 90’s. Nathan Deal used to be a Democrat as well. Again, his politics are still the same, he voted with Republicans even before the change.
There seems to be some sort of understanding, or lack thereof, that teachers have any control over the school….We don’t. We are told what to teach, how to teach, and when to teach. Meanwhile, a testing company, with a monopoly on the state’s testing bottom to top, evaluates what students “know.” Teachers have no power. Administrators have no power. The power comes from boards, (elected) yes, but mostly the state and federal government (also elected.) For example, Obama’s legislation for education is idiotic, can teachers do anything about it? No. Can the state? Possibly, but the don’t and won’t. Sorry, but you are blaming the wrong people. NCLB anyone?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
3:11 pm
what I’m still curious about:
when the parents lose interest in these mythical schools on a hill…the ones where teachers are vetted, approved, trained, ect by parents,
who will they blame then?
cris
March 20th, 2013
3:23 pm
.” Lots of teachers,educrats and their ilk are mad because their politics don’t work very well right now and it’s hard for them to adapt.That’s probably why the higher ups in the school systems have their own “my way or the highway” approach to new programs .Teachers are ungovernable.They think that they know better than their superiors in every situation. That’s why reform will have to be imposed on them instead of waiting for them to discover it.”
-you are certainly living up to your name Astropig…
I’m a 20-year veteran teacher- is it so hard to comprehend that I might actually know how and what to teach to the students that I have every day? More so than some legislator at the Gold Dome or even Washington? That the reason it’s so hard for us to “adapt” might be that every 3-5 years we are asked to totally scrap the curriculum, standards and evaluations and start from scratch – again? And unfortunately, teachers seem to be very “governable” right now…you don’t see any of us staging mass sick-outs or strikes, do you? I don’t pretend to understand YOUR career/job…please don’t condescend to understand mine…..
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
3:25 pm
bootney, the mythical schools do exist. Check out Drew Charter School, which educates childrne in the Coan Middle School and Toomer area in APS.
Drew consistently outperforms both Toomer and Coan, which aer traditional public schools.
Parents are happy and so are the kids and teachers.
Both Toomer and Coan are very low-performing and were huge cheaters in the biggest cheating scandal in the nation’s history.
Drew’s children are almost exclusively black and low-income.
Drew’s parents are looking for anything other than a good education for their children.
What is more apparent, Bootney, is that you are intimidated by the prospect that your formerly secure lifer government job might be in jeopardy. Should you worry? Only if you are a bad teacher. There will always be jobs for good teachers.
Perhaps you are worried you might have to listen and respond more appropriately to the parents of the children in your classroom. In that case, I recommend you throw away the hostility you frequently show to parents on these blogs and instead practice your communication skills.
Charter schools.
Ousting of local boards of schools.
Parent trigger laws.
The tide is turning and parents will have the respect and the power they need to educate their children appropriately.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
3:27 pm
CORRECTION: Instead of “Drew’s parents are looking for anything other than a good education for their children.
It should be
“Drew’s parents are NOT looking for anything other than a good education for their children.”
Toomer and Coan are to blame. The school administration, the teachers and staff and APS are to blame for the rotten learning outcomes in Coan and Toomer.
Parents don’t have to look for it, Bootney. It’s as obvious as the test scores on the APS web sites.
Brasstown
March 20th, 2013
3:48 pm
Big deal. Somebody took over failing APS school and made it work better. You could pull the administration and staff from just about any average public school in GA and put them at a miserably performing school and they could turn it around just fine. There’s nothing special about the “charter team” in your narrow example. Everyone knows that low performing schools in mostly urban areas need help. The real problem is being couched as how to bring up test scores and completion rates in all of GA’s schools? Schools that are operating very well, but still 30-40% of students aren’t succeeding. That’s a very different problem.
Dunwoody
March 20th, 2013
3:52 pm
Teacherrollinghereyes, with a parent take over you would most likely see those bad admin folks replaced as well.
And to the person in Cobb with the rose colored glasses – Gwinnett and Cobb are five-ten years away from becoming DeKalb
Political Mongrel
March 20th, 2013
4:02 pm
Hmm . . . does this parent trigger rule apply to schools that are within charter systems?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:09 pm
some things I find amusing in this:
-several of the most venomous anti teacher posters have never set foot in a classroom. I wonder if they insist on telling the mechanic or the pharmacist how to do their jobs? more, how they would feel if some “teacher” told them how to do theirs?
-in a nutshell, all the charter crazy is is: you don’t run school exactly the way I want it run, so I want to form my own so I can be in charge and tell you what to do. basically run schools like a booster club, where money and rudeness win the day.
this is fine, just own it. admit you don’t give a rats rear end about schools, just you and yours.
-the concept there will always be a place for good teachers. absolutely, but they won’t be in Georgia. at least not in public ed. they’ll be recruited to places where teaching is respected, not abused. and the nutcase zealots will be stuck with the very people they don’t want, since no one else will take the jobs.
-can’t help but wonder if the rabid dogs would allow us to spank their kid? public humiliation? actually fail them? worst of all, hold them out of football for bad grades? my guess is no way in hell, but its like asking how many GPC VPs could have been laid off and keep the bulk of the plant ops staff – answer: we’ll never know
-red meat Fran decides to give a damn about us by blocking us from participation. nothing says love like enforced silence.
I once asked a guy from DeLoitte and Touche (SP?) if layoffs really helped a company long term. the fast answer was rarely. D&T would make suggestions which involved management running leaner and meaner, but usually this was ignored in favor of the quick fix. the quick fix which usually left things worse than before.
why? simple. that would require management taking a hard look at themselves, and that rarely happens. the same concept holds for parents. unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions, they look for the easiest target.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
4:14 pm
Me, you predict the charter school run by parents will fail because parents won’t put in the work.
Me, teachers are parents too.
Many teachers often fail to put in the work and that is why many kids cannot even read.
You also fail to acknowlege the hard work that parents have done and continue to do in traditional public schools. One poster lists Mary Lin’s PTA as a good example. They work hard and tireleslly, yet they are limited by law in what they are actually allowed to do. You take those same hard-working parents and put them in a charter school where they are allowed to have more power and more influence — you’ll have an even better school. If you think a group of hard-working moms will raise money for a playground, think how much more motivated they will be if they can raise money to hire a better teacher.
All these doom and gloom predictions about parent run schools by peole like you amounts to one thing — FEAR.
You fear that charter schools or parent trigger laws will give parents more power to say who stays and who goes.
Bad teachers should be scared.
Are you scared?
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
4:18 pm
Bootney should put her money where her mouth is.
She hates her teaching job, hates the parents, hates the kids, hates her bosses and then predicts teachers will flee from schools.
So, Bootney, prove it. Put your money where your mouth is — leave. Prove your point.
We parents will be delighted to get that hostile, caustic attitude of yours away from our children.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:19 pm
all this reminds me why I prefer a classic republican government (not the current GOP, the classical term) over democracy.
democracy is mob rule, as opposed to a rule of laws. and the anti education mob is out in force in Georgia
CJae of EAV
March 20th, 2013
4:23 pm
This bill should go down in flames and is not needed. There are laws that presently exist which are designed to accomplish the same goal in large part and until they are effectively exercised such that we can identify abuses in their application there is ABSOLUTELY no need for this bill in GA.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:23 pm
@ P&J
ordinarily I ignore your caustic rants because they are so long and I’m too far past 50 to waste time on them. but since this last one was short I actually saw it and will respond
1-you are a troll of the lowest form
2-what you don’t know can fill oceans
3-since my layoff -does it make you happy I was laid off?- I am looking for work out of state. even thought it will mean splitting up my family, it will be worth it to escape the idiocy of people like you
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:25 pm
@ CJae
it does beg the question what the real motivation behind it is.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
4:28 pm
@ maureen
as far as you know, has anyone under the gold dome ever proposed doing away with state supported education outright? that seems to be the goal, if not intent
AJC isn't me
March 20th, 2013
4:39 pm
Too bad the misnamed Georgia Association of Educators is run by liberal-Democrat activists pursuing political agendas such as: gay rights, pro-abortion, welfare expansion, etc.
Rather than seeking to influence the political party they and their parent union hate.
Astropig
March 20th, 2013
5:13 pm
@Brasstown et al,
There was a time when your criticism stung. I would think “is this just me”? “Am I the only one that feels this way”? And then…Along came the Charter School Amendment. Now I know that about 60% of the state sees things the way we reformers do. Your spell is broken. Your nonsensical invective is a badge of honor. Fire away. It lets everybody see what we see.
Rick L in ATL
March 20th, 2013
5:29 pm
The future charter school I’ve been predicting for our neighborhood for several years now (just you wait, parents are getting good and fed up with the Inman situation, which is only going to get worse) will be a paradise for good teachers short-lived, utterly hellish experience for bad ones. So, yes, weak teachers should fear the school-choice and parent-trigger movements.
In any future school I’m helping to run, teachers will be continuously, rigorously and fairly evaluated. That’s how we’ll know whom to reward. Good teachers will not have a problem with any of this.
Parents like me who want more choice are not “anti-public education.” We’re just the opposite. We expect the state to support and play a role in whatever future educational system fills the vacuum left by the departure of the current system, which is dying and not worth resuscitating.
The folks looking to preserve the status quo, however (despite all their blather about making “reforms,” which they’ll never accomplish and which wouldn’t be enough anyway) could accurately be described as anti-public education, because the traditional system–the one they support–is a failure.
Saying “I support a bad educational system” is the same as saying “I’m against public education,” right?
Dina
March 20th, 2013
5:49 pm
Thanks Rick….all your “Flowers, Rainbows and Unicorns” talk about how wonderful your Charter School will be has made me absolutely giddy. My child attends a Fulton County School (now a Charter System). I’ll be sure to let all the really great teachers there who are presently experiencing hell that “Paradise” will soon be on the way.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 20th, 2013
5:54 pm
@Astropig “Teachers are ungovernable.They think that they know better than their superiors in every situation. That’s why reform will have to be imposed on them instead of waiting for them to discover it.”
LOL! Astropig, let me explain how things REALLY work, since you apparently are not very well informed. Reforms are “imposed” upon teachers constantly, from what to teach, to how to teach, to what tests to give, to how the report card must took, to what grades we are allowed to give, to what you need to post on you board, to what text books to use, to what lessons to teach, to how many push pins can be in your cork board, to how your vocabulary words must be oriented on the wall, to what color ink pen you can use to grade, to what bleeping PAGE NUMBER of the text you should be covering on any particular day!
(Those of you blaming TEACHERS for the problems in the system are barking up the wrong tree. Good, dedicated teachers are probably the ONLY thing keeping some schools from utter disaster.)
Usually, teachers are called in to a meeting and told what they will be “required” to do without any imput into the decision. Then, naturally, teachers (who are actually in the classroom and trained to deal with children and parents) raise their concerns. They say, “That won’t really work for X students.” or “I tried that in my classroom and it was a disaster.” Or “What about….? ” “Have you considered the possibility of ________?” “This won’t work because of X, Y, or Z!”
And they are ignored, dismissed and told that their superiors (who have never stepped foot in a classroom, or who “failed” at teaching and fled the classroom) know much better than them what will work.
Sort of like we were ignored when we pointed out that NCLB made no sense because there was no way to get every child to score above average by the year 2014, because it is statistically impossible for 100% to be “above the average.”
And then a couple years later, then “reformers” come back and say, “Well, that didn’t work out so well. I didn’t really work for X students. We tried that in various classrooms and it was a disaster. It didn’t work because of X, Y, and Z.” And pretty much they parrot back every concern that teachers initially raised, but they will never admit they were told such by the lowly classroom teachers. Then they bring in the next dog and pony show, because now they, “have a better idea!”
Rinse.
Repeat.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:00 pm
Brasstown, you are absolutely flat out wrong when you say “Teachers and administrators are members of your community that have the same hopes for your children that you do.”
Teachers and administrators at my child’s former APS school are certainly not part of my community. They not only live outside the community, they live outside the district. Many commute in from Woodstock and Stone Mountain. They live where it is cheaper to live and then commute to work and bring their kids with them to our community’ school and goodness gracious if you dare to want a Teacher/Parent conference with them after 2:20…they’re running for their cars and headed out of town….LITERALLY.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 20th, 2013
6:01 pm
P.S. I have a sneaking suspicion that the reason “reforms” don’t actually work, is because, if they did, the “reformers” would be out of a job! Once you have actually “fixed” the schools, what could they do to keep pulling in the big fees for all their “assistance” in fixing the schools?
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:06 pm
I love teaching says exactly what parents hate to hear “Good, dedicated teachers are probably the ONLY thing keeping some schools from utter disaster.)”
ONLY teachers are doing the hard work.
Way to win friends and influence people. (sarcasm font).
You see, when things go right, it’s all thanks to all teachers.
When things are bad it’s because all parents are bad and all administrators are bad.
It’s this kind of constant over the top ridiculous claims that undermine all teachers.
In the same blog we hear from teachers that they can only do what they’re told and have no power but yet also claim they are the only ones holding it all together.
There are many lousy teachers in APS and Dekalb. There are some really good ones too.
There are many lousy parents in APS and Dekalb. There are some good ones too.
Teachers, students and parents are all integral parts of the school and no genuinely good school exists without the cooperation, intelligence and effort by all three groups but listening to I love/hate teaching tell it…all of we parents are dirt bags, all kids are miscreants and all teachers are Mother Theresa.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:10 pm
To Rick, great post. Thanks.
Please tell us more about your plans for Inman. I have skin in the game and lots of it.
Pride and Joy
March 20th, 2013
6:14 pm
Bootney, thanks for your post. I’ve said many times before:
Good teachers will have no trouble finding a job. Only bad teachers have to worry about losing theirs.
You proved my point for me.
Bernie
March 20th, 2013
6:22 pm
Georgia Legislators Message to The Teachers Of Georgia: YOU ARE THE ENEMY!….PERIOD!
mark
March 20th, 2013
6:39 pm
As a left wing, pink-o commie teacher, i dont know why teachers here are not republicants. I sit in meetings about budgets, school law and such. All the elected Rs downtown were voted in by these folks. Not me. I have not voted for a winner in years!! But the real problem I see is the lack of forethought, about the future of Georgia. I dont see myself or my offspring staying here, but if you dont change your educationally ways, all these highly educated folks you desire for current and future jobs, will be imported from overseas.
Myth
March 20th, 2013
6:52 pm
@Pride&Joy
“Drew’s children are almost exclusively black and low-income.”
This is one of the biggest myths around. Drew Charter is rapidly becoming ANCS. Drew Charter is certainly not even close to low income….anymore.
Georgia
March 20th, 2013
7:01 pm
Education: How to teach children how to think. There is only one way to get every child to think, and that is to let them design the tests. It changes everything. It forces them to approach a subject from an angle that allows them to think.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
March 20th, 2013
7:07 pm
@Pride and Joy “ONLY teachers are doing the hard work.
Way to win friends and influence people. (sarcasm font).
You see, when things go right, it’s all thanks to all teachers.
When things are bad it’s because all parents are bad and all administrators are bad.
It’s this kind of constant over the top ridiculous claims that undermine all teachers.
P&J
I was addressing Astropig’s comment concerning REFORMERS, and the input of REFORMERS. I was not addressing parental input at all…nor school administrations’, since most of the time, the school level administrator’s hands are just as tied as those of the teachers. Now, if you REALLY want to convince me that parents have any input when it comes to the “reforms” being imposed upon school systems from above, then we can talk. I am sorry you misinterpreted my post, but I was discussing how TEACHERS keep doing their best despite the reform being implemented which make no sense. Parents really have very little say in what test I must give, what EQs I must post, or what color pen I can use on my papers. Parents are often just as at the mercy of the refomers as everyone else. Isn’t that what you keep complaining about? The terrible leadership at APS and Dekalb?
NO WHERE did I say anything even remotely, close to “all parents are dirt bags, all kids are miscreants, and all teachers are Mother Theresa.” I find that highly offensive to my students and parents, and I deeply resent your implicating I would believe such a thing! Not to mention, I have many, MANY times discussed the importance of parental support on this blog. You repeatedly accuse me of saying negative things about parents, which I HAVE NOT posted, and frankly, I am weary of it.
Jack ®
March 20th, 2013
7:24 pm
Best you stay out of the street fights, Ms Downey. You are outnumbered, y’know.
Maureen Downey
March 20th, 2013
7:25 pm
@Jack, There may be more of them, but I am meaner.
Maureen
Big Mama
March 20th, 2013
7:37 pm
I am a parent (not a teacher or employee of the school system) and I am astonished at the criticism heaped on teachers by certain posters. The teachers my son has had have all been highly qualified, highly motivated, and very interested in the best for all their students. The issues I can see that make their job difficult are the overcrowded classrooms and the ineffectual, uninterested parents who never respond to requests for conferences, do not send their children into the classroom ready to learn, or even to help find lost library books. If there are bad teachers in your school, then your school administrators need to hear from you that these teachers are unacceptable.
Mary Elizabeth
March 20th, 2013
7:55 pm
@ Maureen Downey, 7:25 pm
PLEASE2
March 20th, 2013
8:00 pm
Why hate on teachers to this intesity? These are the very people that spend more hours per week with YOUR children than you do per week. Also, since these schools are low-perfroming and so much more stress is placed on their plate, why not place equal amout of extra funds for those teachers’ plates that work in under-performing schools? “You get what you pay for” is the old addage.
Just sayin`
Private Citizen
March 20th, 2013
8:44 pm
Bootney and Brasstown, you tell ‘em!!! Support !
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:04 pm
@ astro
when was the last time you taught in a classroom?
since you speak with such assumed authority you must have on the ground experience to back this up. don’t you?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:06 pm
we have children 5 hours a week out of 160+.
and somehow we’re the problem?
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:08 pm
@ maureen
I grew up in the streets, and have and Ph.D. in streetwise nasty.
if you need any pointers, holler.
bootney farnsworth
March 20th, 2013
9:21 pm
things we cannot effect
-the amount of time they study outside class.
-compulsory attention, much less attendence.
-student priorities
-parent priorities
-insanity from the idiots in DC
-insanity from the idiots under the gold dome
-the importance of football over education
-the quality of the work done by faculty before us
-the quality and safety of the neighborhood
-the price of textbooks
-social pressure to promote students who are not ready
-the ineptness of administration
-Fran Millar
-the political ruthlessness of administrative types
-distribution of funds and technology
-the nonstop slashing of budgets
-the scapegoating by the gold dome crowd
-incompetent leadership
-cronyism, nepotism, and graft by school boards
-SACS
-the quality of school food
-ect ect ect.
ALL we can do is try for one hour a day for less than 180 days a year to teach the few who want to learn. and somehow we’re the problem.
changemaker
March 20th, 2013
9:51 pm
The parents had to take the reins in Adelanto, California, the first place the trigger was pulled, because the teachers, union, board, and several administrators were never going to change the status quo. The school had been in program improvement for almost eight years, the entire life of an elementary student. When the parents did pull the trigger, their immigration status was questioned and insults hurled. The parents persevered, however, and their new school will open in August, 2013.
10:10 am
March 20th, 2013
10:16 pm
Like moths to a flame, the blog’s chronic whiners and malcontents seem unusually drawn to this topic.
Cobb History Teacher
March 20th, 2013
10:49 pm
“Georgia parents….in another 2-3 years, who do you think will be teaching your kids? For the last 2-3 years I’ve watched the brightest and best teachers leave. Normal, grounded, well-educated people are over being treated so unfairly/poorly. Who do you think will be left?
It’s really easy to say to someone that if you don’t like your job, then leave. When this happens, who’s left? If you want to have a future where you’re kids aren’t sleeping on your couch at 30 it may be time to start respecting the teaching profession again (notice I said teaching, not the overly bloated beurocratic business model that seems to permeate our schools)”
Well put. Problem is everyone expects teachers to work for free, and based on the trust and responsibility we are given most of us feel we deserve more respect as professionals then we currently are given. Beyond the respect there is also the issue of one teacher taking on and trying to teach thirty plus students in a classroom designed for twenty well behaved on task students. The system is broke and that’s why schools fail. You have students who don’t understand why they are there (many think it’s to socialize and have “fun”) and so they fight the education they are being given because it’s not “entertaining” them.
This then causes some parents and the public blame the teachers. This is like blaming a doctor for a patient’s death when the patient refused to follow the doctor’s orders. A teacher can only do so much most of us at the middle and high school level manage more students (try 120+) than the average business owner has employees, and we do it all alone there are no teachers’ aides. Try putting one person in charge of planning and strategy (lesson plans), finance and accounting (grading and grade input), legal (enforcing school and classroom rules), marketing and sales (keeping up a blog or a homework web page), customer service (contacting and conferencing with parents) and human resources (helping students to get along in the school and classroom). Most people have no idea how much we do as they have never done it they have only sat on the student’s side of the desk.
Bottom line schools are a reflection of the community they serve. Communities without discipline, communities that are all about their “rights” but not about their “responsibilities and communities that don’t value education (at least not in action) will always have failing schools. For those that can do better get you teaching certificate join us and show us how it’s done. After all you get your summers off.
sneak peak into education
March 20th, 2013
10:57 pm
The public are being duped and drinking the reform-speak cool-aid. Whenever someone says how teachers fight against the “status-quo” you know you are listening to someone who has been fed lines from the reformy folks. There has never been status quo in the schools; they are forever in a constant state of flux as they are subjected to a constant changes in policies, as directed by those in power. However, this bill, the so-called Parent Trigger, is nothing more than a ruse by the right-wing group ALEC, whose aim is to privatize public education and turn it over to the big corporations only for the sake of pillaging tax dollars. Have a look at the states that have, for years, had charter schools, vouchers, etc… and you will not see the miracle increase in educational performance that is promised. What you will see a two-tier public education system or money being funneled into private schools that teach religion or do not have the same level of accountability that is expected from our traditional schools.
If you read about what truly happened in the first Parent Trigger in California, you won’t be surprised to read that it was led by Parent’s Revolution. This group is backed and funded by Bill Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundation (billionaires who have shown nothing but contempt for public education) not for altruistic purposes but so they can siphon money from the public coffers. There was a huge legal battle because parents were duped into signing a petition that was totally void of the real purpose of it; ie putting the local school into the hands of a for-profit charter. When the community found out, many tried to rescind their signatures but the judge wouldn’t allow them to (doing so would have meant that they didn’t have the 50% required). What the judge did do was not allow those parents who wanted to remove their signatures from having any say in the start up of the new school. It isn’t too difficult to find out what happened and the obscene way in which these parents were treated.
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/23/parent-trigger-hoax/
Parent trigger on agenda today. Is the bill fatally flawed? | Get Schooled
March 21st, 2013
12:42 am
[...] But House Bill 123 underwent dramatic change in its move from House passage to Senate consideration. The Senate eliminated any mention of teachers in failing schools being able to petition for a management overhaul. The Senate version limits that power to parents. [...]