Disappointing Education pick

Barack Obama's choice for Education secretary, longtime friend Arne Duncan, is an interesting study. On the plus side, as CEO of Chicago's public schools since 2001, Mr. Duncan has been an advocate of charter schools and performance pay for teachers. He is described as "a sort of a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-down-to-work kind of individual" with a "a very down-to-earth perspective."

Oversaw schools where just 1 in 6 eight-graders read at grade level, only 1 in 8 were proficient in math and 23 percent were able to write at grade level, the U.S. Department of Education's 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress tests found.

Proposed separate-but-equal education (Social Justice High School, Pride Campus) for homosexual and lesbian students, complete with a curriculum that "celebrated" homosexuality and played up the role of homosexuals in history. His plan has been withdrawn, but only for revisions.

Was hailed as a reformer, but opposed school vouchers and refused to buck the teachers unions for the sake of labor peace and teacher morale. The national teachers unions have endorsed his nomination.

Closed failing schools, but rather than disciplining or firing underperforming or incompetent teachers, he transferred them to other schools.

Displayed a scattershot approach to education through his propensity for employing unconventional methods to try to increase academic performance. Without much success, test scores demonstrate.

Had moderate success in improving attendance, but only after bribing truants with tickets to sporting events. In September, he initiated a program in 20 schools to pay students for good grades — for doing what what's expected of them and doing what best for themselves. Straight-A students stand to rake in $4,000 a year.

Perhaps from his new perch, Mr. Duncan will get a new perspective on the educational landscape and realize America needs a hands-on Education secretary who is unafraid to rock the entrenched education establishment's boat a lot harder than he ever did in Chicago.

"Ayers and his co-author Michael Klonsky responded to [Arne] Duncan in an article published in Phi Delta Kappan -- a professional journal for education -- describing him as 'the brightest and most dedicated schools leader Chicago has had in memory,'"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2008/12/16/duncan-praised-bona-fide-reformer-chicago-educators/
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"The Small Schools Workshop was founded in 1991 at the University of Illinois at Chicago to provide support for teachers who were trying to create new smaller learning environments. Its director is Michael Klonsky, a former professor of education at UIC."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Schools_Workshop
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Some background on Bill Ayers' SDS comrade, Michael Klonsky
(Chicago Annenberg Challenge-related)

"One of Bill Ayers’ and Bernardine Dohrn’s comrades in the late 60s Students for a Democratic Society was Mike Klonsky. When Dohrn and Ayers moved in one direction toward the violent tactics of the Weather Underground, Klonsky, in the wake of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, dropped the pro-Russian communist politics of his parents and became a committed Maoist. As leader of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) in 1977 [not to be confused with Communist Party USA. CPML no longer exists, CPUSA formed decades earlier and is still around-ETL], he travelled to Beijing and was toasted by the senior Beijing leadership.

When the crazy left of the 70s died in the 80s, Klonsky went to graduate school in education in Florida and then moved to Chicago.

While driving a cab there he [Michael Klonsky] was recruited by his old friend Bill Ayers to head up a new project called the Small Schools Workshop in 1991. It’s offices were in the Department of Education building at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus where Ayers taught.

In 1995 the newly formed Chicago Annenberg Challenge headed by Ayers and Obama gave the Workshop a grant of $175,000.

The Annenberg Challenge also had its office space in the same building as Ayers Department and the Workshop, rent free courtesy of the University.

In 2008 Klonsky ran a blog on the official Obama campaign website on education policy and “social justice” teaching. When discussion of the Klonsky blog emerged in the blogosphere, it was promptly shut down by the campaign and all of the posts made by Klonsky were removed from the site."

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/12/the-obama-ayers-top-ten-highlights-of-the-20-year-obama-ayers-connection/
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In 1977, the October League was reorganized as the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) [again, not Communist Party USA (CPUSA) -ETL] and former SDS activist Michael Klonsky became party chairman. Also in 1977, Klonsky traveled to China and the CPML was recognized by the Chinese Communist Party as its official sister party in America.

(snip)

In January 1981, Michael Klonsky resigned as party chairman, and the CPML disbanded that same year.

The previous Red Encyclopedia description of the CPML was incorrectly combined with that of the Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist).

http://reds.linefeed.org/past.html
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From Investor's Business Daily (IBD), August 27, 2008:

"Ayers, now a tenured distinguished professor of education at UIC, works to educate teachers in socialist revolutionary ideology, urging that it be passed on to impressionable students.

One of Ayer's descriptions for a course called 'Improving Learning Environments' says prospective K-12 teachers need to 'be aware of the social and moral universe we inhabit and ... be a teacher capable of hope and struggle, outrage and action, teaching for social justice and liberation.

The Annenberg papers are quite extensive — 132 boxes containing 947 file folders with 70 linear feet of material. They undoubtedly contain more surprises regarding Obama's relationship with Ayers, one of many relationships Obama has sought to hide.'..."

Article: Annenberg Papers: Putting On Ayers?
http://www.ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304729375940845
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Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA [Maoist]
Revolution #63, October 1, 2006

Interview with Bill Ayers:
"On Progressive Education, Critical Thinking and the Cowardice of Some in Dangerous Times"
http://rwor.org/a/063/ayers-en.html
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[Obama] is named Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge founded by Bill Ayers
(article typo has Ayers instead of Obama)

In late 1993, Bill Ayers, now an associate professor of education at the University of Illinois Chicago Circle Campus, organized a team to put together a grant proposal to secure nearly $50 million from the Annenberg Challenge. The money was to be used by Ayers and co. to bolster the radical Local School Councils reform project that Ayers and Obama had championed back in 1988 through the ABCs.

The grant application was successful and in early 1995 Barack Obama was named chairman of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayers was named co-chair of the Challenge’s operative and strategic body, the Chicago School Reform Collaborative. Ayers and Obama work together for the next five years on raising an additional $60 million in matching money from local foundations and corporations and using the money to intervene in the governance of the Chicago public schools.

The Challenge through a multi-million dollar Leadership Development Initiative intervened in the School Council elections in the middle of what was known as the Chicago School Wars. At the same time Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was pushing, successfully, to gut the power of the Councils.

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/08/12/the-obama-ayers-top-ten-highlights-of-the-20-year-obama-ayers-connection/
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"This is a guy [Bill Ayers] who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English..."

“Poor teachers ARE the problem.”

They results are often just as good as the parents that produced the kids (raw material) that they have to work with. A problem that crosses all economic classes.

Politicians, lawyers(who want to file suit if a kid sneezes), and wanna-be politicians who make the rules, set the standards, and take up teaching time adding new curriculum for some social function, or because of a lawsuit, leaving little time for teaching Johnny to read. Parent’s dump their kids at school, don’t help with homework and want the teacher to fill out evaluations for their kids pedatrician so they can be classified ADHD and give the parents an excuse for not disciplining their kids. The parents are out at night, socializing while their kids are at other activities 5 nights a week and don’t do their homework. The kids come to school exhausted and sleepy. It’s the teachers fault. Heaven help you if you don’t recognize that Dr. Johnny’s or Super lawyer Smiths kid is a genius, how dare you give them a bad grade. It’s funny but in this district NFL players kids are the easiest to deal with. This doesn’t include the kids of the parents that are fighting over a divorce and using the kid as a tool to make the other mad and don’t forget all of the parent’s sleepover friends that confuse the kids and make them wonder if they are wanted. I could keep running sentences together but that is what teachers like my wife who has a M.Ed., is national board certified, and a reading recovery teacher has to put up with daily. This is in a upper class school system. Just think if they could bill like Doctors, Lawyers and Indian Chiefs by the hour they would be in the upper 10% of wage earners just on the hours spent nights, weekends and after school hours. Oh don’t forget dealing with other family crisis’s like deaths in the family of their students and parent’s that don’t even bother to give their kids any attention and drop them off at 6am and pick them up at 6pm even on their days off. It is amazing that many of the kids just want a hug, which is dangerous these days since the teacher may be accused of being a pedophile. By the way if parent’s don’t get what they want they run to the school board and you know what happens when politician’s get involved. School boards are no longer populated with civic minded citizens they are inhabited by future governor’s and presidents, at least in their minds.

It’s amazing in this country the number of Doctors. lawyers and Indian chiefs that taught themselves to read and write. It must be hell to be a plumber, machinist or a carpenter who had to go to school to learn.

Yes there are bad teachers and they should be eliminated but look at the whole picture.

I’ll correct my grammar when I cool off.

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