My first petition for Obama: listen to educators not billionaires on education reform

[yurbud]

I will be curious to see how Obama responds to these and whether this site is still up after the election.

In the meantime, I'm going to treat it like a sincere effort, so educators and progressives who care about education, sign now!

listen to educators & parents not billionaires who stand to profit from education "reform"

The current education "reform" movement is driven by real estate, software, education management, and testing corporations who stand to profit from destroying existing public schools and replacing them with for profit charter schools that siphon for private profits that could have gone directly to classrooms.

Instead, listen to the teachers, involved parents, and scholars who do research on education to determine the best way to improve our schools while keeping them entirely public rather than treating our children's future like a commodity to be speculated on like so many bushels of wheat or pork bellies.

What we can learn from the private sector is the best practices of entirely private schools, like your own children attend, and how to prepare our kids to benefit from them.

http://wh.gov/4rK">Sign at White House Petition Site

[dkf]

1. "pay me $100,000 and give me 16 kids to teach".

[blkmusclmachine]

2. The "Christian Dominionists" are calling the shots on Obama's Education Deform:

Read up on the 7 Mountains/New Apolistic Reformation and "The Family" Cult. The Oak Initiative got a special invite from the WH to pray over Obama and deliver a sermon at the WH on "God-based politics" for Easter Sunday this year. Apparently, Rev. Rick "Uganda" Warren and Donnie "ex-gay" McClurkin were only warm-ups.

[polichick]

5. When it comes to this I sure hope the prez is a cynical politician and not a true believer.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. I'd like to hear how my 38 student class can be reduced to 24

it is too big. what happened to the class size thing?

[yurbud]

4. once public schools are privatized, your job security and benefits taken away and pay cut in half

that could be doable--unless it impedes corporate profits. Then not so much.

[johnaries]

6. Charter Schools ARE Public Schools, NOT Private Schools.

Yes, there are some that use Private Management, but on the whole they are Public Schools. Please do not confuse the issue.

[StarsInHerHair]

7. WRONG!

http://gothamschools.org/2010/03/26/are-charter-school-public-schools-i%E2%80%99m-afraid-not/

http://www.nea.org/home/16332.htm


Charter school principals cannot be removed by elected officials. Their board members are not subject to removal by public elections. The executives of charter management organizations are not accountable to the government for their jobs. More important, however, is the difference in moral mission. It is the responsibility of the public schools to educate every child who shows up. All children who live in a school district have a right to attend a district school. Furthermore, no public school can in good conscience “counsel out” a student. Private schools are well known to engage the practice of “counseling out” when a student does not seem to fit in or is too disruptive or the school believes that it cannot well meet that student’s needs. As the student has the public schools to fall back on, the moral import of this practice is surely debatable. But the public schools must find another placement for students whose needs they cannot meet, because they – in the form of the district – have a moral and a legal obligation to educate every child that shows up.

[ClarkUSA]

9. No, you're wrong. I will quote from your own source, the NEA:

Charter Schools


Definition

Charter schools are publicly funded elementary or secondary schools that have been freed from some of the rules, regulations, and statutes that apply to other public schools, in exchange for some type of accountability for producing certain results, which are set forth in each charter school's charter.

NEA believes that charter schools and other nontraditional public school options have the potential to facilitate education reforms and develop new and creative teaching methods that can be replicated in traditional public schools for the benefit of all children. Whether charter schools will fulfill this potential depends on how charter schools are designed and implemented, including the oversight and assistance provided by charter authorizers.


NEA's Policy on Charter Schools

State laws and regulations governing charter schools vary widely. NEA's state affiliates have positions on charter schools that are appropriate to the situation in their states. NEA's policy statement sets forth broad parameters, and minimum criteria by which to evaluate state charter laws. For example...

Read more: http://www.nea.org/home/16332.htm

[yurbud]

12. so no charter schools are private contractors? You're being dishonest

[ClarkUSA]

14. That's a strawman argument. You're being dishonest. Ignore the facts if you want.

I posted the facts straight from the NEA. You're entitled to your own opinions but not your own facts. But to insist charter schools are not public schools is what's truly "dishonest".

[yurbud]

15. Nice sidestep. Would you call mercenaries in Iraq & Afghanistan ''our troops'' too?

After all they are contractors working for the federal government.

[madfloridian]

8. Recced it but still at 0

Nice petition. Much needed.

:hi:

[MissDeeds]

10. My rec is at 0 too

It boggles the mind how this post and petition could get unrecced.

[Starry Messenger]

11. k&r

[chill_wind]

13. K & R.

[yurbud]

16. short url if you want to pass it around:

http://tinyurl.com/teachersnotscammers

[brentspeak]

17. k/r

:kick: