RAVITCH: Conservative think tank praises Obama for standing up to teachers' unions

[yurbud]

Is this really the amount of choice we deserve in a democracy? A candidate who backs endless standardized testing to prove public schools are failing, and uses that as an excuse to privatize the schools even though those private FOR PROFIT charter schools do worse more often than better than regular public schools?

And the other candidate is a REPUBLICAN whose only difference is he will spend less money on schools in any case?

What will it take to get Obama and the leaders of the Democratic Party to listen educators and academics instead of Wall Street sociopaths looking to make a buck off our kids like so many barrels of oil or pork bellies?

Did President Obama Embrace the GOP Agenda?

by dianerav

The conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute has published a paper commending President Obama for standing up to teachers' unions.

The paper compares President Obama's support for school choice and evaluation of teachers by test scores as a "Nixon-to-China" paradigm shift.

In other words, the paper suggests, Obama's education policy has done a full pivot, aligning it with the traditional GOP agenda.

Can anyone explain this

dianerav | September 19, 2012 at 10:34 am | Categories: Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, For-Profit, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Obama, Privatization, Race to the Top, Unions | URL: http://wp.me/p2odLa-1YA

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[abelenkpe]

2. privatization is a scam that should be stopped. nt

[leftyohiolib]

5. privatization means profitization

[yurbud]

11. and profitization means campaign contributions now and big bucks jobs later for pols

[sinkingfeeling]

3. I think Ravitch over states the claim. Here's a link to the AEI paper.

http://www.aei.org/outlook/education/k-12/system-reform/turning-the-tides-president-obama-and-education-reform/

The fact that president Barack Obama is an African American Democrat with a background working with poor communities has equipped him to confront teachers unions and other special interest groups |in a way most other leaders have not been able to. A nearly insurmountable subgovernment in public education—labeled an “iron triangle” by political scientists—has historically resisted reform and increased school costs, failing to improve school performance. President Obama has successfully challenged this gridlock, namely through the Race to the Top initiative and his blueprint for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Although there are limitations to Obama’s education agenda, most notably embodied in his unrestricted stimulus dollars to states and districts, he has signaled that a popular Democratic president does not have to do what is most favorable to teachers unions to secure their votes. Regardless of whether President Obama’s reforms live up to their hype, his challenging of common assumptions about reformers and what they strive to accomplish will have long-term positive effects on the US education debate.

[yurbud]

4. so you thinking the testing, teacher and union bashing, privatization model is the way to go?

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Please provide a link to President Obama union bashing and urging privatization.

[yurbud]

8. Race to the Top requires allowing and funding charter schools to be in the running

(iii) The State’s charter schools receive (as set forth in Appendix B) equitable funding compared to traditional public schools, and a commensurate share of local, State, and Federal revenues;
(iv) The State provides charter schools with funding for facilities (for leasing facilities, purchasing facilities, or making tenant improvements), assistance with facilities acquisition, access to public facilities, the ability to share in bonds and mill levies, or other supports; and the extent to which the State does not impose any facility-related

http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/executive-summary.pdf

[radical noodle]

12. If the aei thinks it's good, it probably isn't

Affiliated with the aei: Lynne Cheney, John Bolton, Newt Gingrich, Paul Wolfowitz. Do you think for a moment they care about education of the masses?

[yurbud]

13. the way an oil company cares about an Iraqi, yes.

[bemildred]

7. Yep, definitely time to suck up to Obama now, AEI. nt

[yurbud]

9. it's surreal.

[bemildred]

10. Isn't it?

I've been waiting for this all my life, the dam is finallly busted, or at least heavily cracked.