Tag: obama

Puppets

John King and Arne Duncan

It is well known in these parts that John King is merely a puppet for Merryl Tisch and Andy Cuomo.  A mouthpiece to spout off their talking points and take the heat coming their direction.  He is nothing more than their marionette as they pull the strings.  The same can be said for Arne Duncan, who plays the puppet to puppet masters Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Jeb Bush, and a whole host of ed deformers.  It’s not that guys like King and Duncan have skills or are at a superior intelligence level that has helped them to rise to their positions.  They simply make good lap dogs.  Stroke their egos, give them scraps of good food and they will be happy.  More than willing to be loyal to your agenda, even if that agenda is one of child abuse.

For years this sort of existence has worked like a charm for both the deformers and their puppets.  The deformers have gotten to use the media to spout their propaganda about how bad our schools are, how we need accountability and choice, even going so far as to say that our schools are so terrible that they have become a threat to our national security!  The media of course has eaten it up at every turn and have feted Duncan and King as though they could do no wrong.

But this year a funny thing happened.  Parents stopped buying the nonsense they were being fed by Fox News.  They stopped paying attention to the plaudits that MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough heaped upon Duncan.  They no longer paid attention to Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post as it pounded our state’s public schools.  This all started to change, of course, because their kids started to be picked on.  Their kids were the ones who wanted to stop going to school.  Their kids were the ones who were slamming their heads against their desk during last spring’s ELA or breaking down into tears in the midst of the math test.  All of a sudden their children were the vicitims of bullying.  That’s where the tide began to turn.

Since that time a lot of questions have started to be asked.  A lot of motives have been called into question.  The parents, whose children are being abused, are no longer content to sit idly by as they listen to rehearsed talking points.  That’s when things begin to fall apart for the deformers.  Because stooges like King and Duncan are ill prepared to offer any real defense of the Common Core.  Because there really isn’t a good defense for it.  Instead you get John King complaining of “special interests” and taking his ball and going home.  Or you get Arne Duncan crying about “white suburban moms” whose children “aren’t as brilliant as they think.”  Of course anyone with half a brain would know not to incite an angry mob.  But this is King and Duncan we are talking about.  They don’t have half a brain combined.  So their words have only served to fan the flames and in New York State we now have a full blown revolution on our hands.

It is now time for us to move our focus to the bigger guns.  Move on to the puppet masters.  In New York State Andy Cuomo and Merryl Tisch are behind the curtain, writing the script for John King.  They are the ones to go after now.  Tisch is put in place by the state legislators who are all up for re-election next year.  So is Andy Cuomo who has his sites set on the White House in 2016.  It’s time to ratchet up the pressure.  To put the full court press on.  Make sure the deform agenda is attached to the people who are really pushing it and make them pay next November.

Friday Notes

The NEA, to whom we pay dues,  continues to sell out it’s members.

The AFT, to whom we pay dues, continues to shill for the Common Core.  Here is Randi Weingarten in tandem with John King.

President Obama, whom the NEA and AFT endorsed twice, is bringing in a new education aid to join his team.  He’s just what we need too… the leader of a philanthropic group who raises money for charter schools!

While we are on the topic, B-LoEdScene speaks of Upside Downland.

Andy Cuomo thinks John King should not step down.  After all “change is hard.”

Obama Hates Unions

Labor Haters: Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama

President Obama, who is trying to destroy the industry in which we make our living, was at it again yesterday.  He was comparing the GOP to striking workers who should be fired.

Via the Washington Examiner…

President Obama again compared Republicans in Congress to workers going on strike, telling reporters Tuesday that GOP lawmakers had no more right to shut down the government than factory workers had to walk off their jobs.

The president made similar remarks at an event in Rockville, Md., on Thursday. He even referenced that event in his remarks Tuesday.

Both times, he compared GOP lawmakers to hypothetical striking workers. He argued those workers would be rightfully fired if they tried to shut down a plant to extract concessions from management.

In each case, Obama seemed unaware that the worker activity he was describing was a classic organized labor strike, a federally protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act. The law was signed by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 and is considered one of the era’s major liberal victories.

It makes you wonder why labor has endorsed him in the last two elections.  Unions may want to start paying attention to a politician’s actions when choosing who they endorse, rather than just handing over the endorsement to anyone who pays them lip service.  Despite claiming to support unions in the past, Obama has proven to be nothing more than another anti-labor neoliberal pandering to the corporate dollar.

Weekend Links

Enjoy the great article about Philly’s teachers and why they deserve a fair contract.

A few links for your reading pleasure before classes start on Monday morning…

The best article I have read all week (and why you should be following what’s happening in Philly).

Cuomo wants to double down on failing schools and take dramatic action.  (We know what that means).

Ravitch with Why Hedge Fund Managers Are So Interested in School Reform… she touches on the public school hating Democrats for Education Reform and Barack Obama

A group of activists wants the CTU’s Karen Lewis to run for mayor against the public school hating Rahm Emanuel in 2015.

AQE’s response to Cuomo’s “death penalty” comment.

WaPo’s Valerie Strauss with Seven Facts You Should Know About the Common Core.

A brand new site to help follow the war on public ed: Public School Shakedown

Barack Obama and the Destruction of American Public Education

You may remember Bill Ayers for the whole “Barack Obama pals around with terrorists” bit that the McCain/Palin ticket played during the 2008 election.  Bill Ayers is actually a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Last week he eloquently penned a letter to President Obama, calling out the president and many others for their destructive education policies.  Every teacher should read the letter, given that it states much of what we would love to scream from the top of our lungs.

Keep in mind that Obama, endorsed twice by the AFT and NEA, has looked into a camera on multiple occasions and claimed that teachers need to stop teaching to the test.  All of this as he hypocritically  has pushed Race to the Top onto us, forcing public schools to become only about testing.

Letter Writing to President Obama

The great Diane Ravitch, one of public ed’s biggest supporters, is organizing a letter writing campaign to President Obama.  All PJSTA members should have received an email about it sometime in the past two weeks.  Below is the text from this blog post by Ravitch.  She explains what should be in the letter and how you can submit your letter.

I will write about this every single day from now until October 17.

Please write your thoughts about what needs to change in federal education policy and send a letter to President Obama by that date.

You can write it now and follow instructions here.

Anthony Cody, experienced middle school science teacher and fabulous blogger, has offered to coordinate our campaign to write President Obama on October 17.

We call it the Campaign for Our Public Schools.

Our campaign is meant to include everyone who cares about public education: students, parents, teachers, principals, school board members, and concerned citizens. We want everyone to write the President and tell him what needs to change in his education policies.

Tell your friends about the Campaign. If you have a blog, write about it. Wherever you are, spread the news. Join us.

Here are the instructions:

You can send your letter to Anthony Cody or to this blog.

Or you can send it directly to the White House, with a copy to me or Anthony.

Anthony will gather all the emails sent to him and me and forward them to the White House.

1. Email your letters to anthony_cody@hotmail.com.

2. Or submit them as comments to this blog. You can respond to this post or to any other post on this blog about the October 17 Campaign for Our Public Schools.

All letters collected through these two channels will be compiled into a single document, which will be sent to the White House on Oct. 18.

In ADDITION to this,

3. You can mail copies of your letters through US mail to The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 20500

4. You can send them by email from this page: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

If you choose to write or email the White House, please send us a copy so we can keep track of how many letters were sent to the President.

One more thought: when you write to the President, also write to your Senators and Congressman or -woman and to your state legislator and Governor. Send the same letter to them all.

Let’s raise our voices NOW against privatization, against high-stakes testing, against teacher bashing, against profiteering.

Let’s advocate for policies that are good for students, that truly improve education, that respect the education profession, and that strengthen our democratic system of public education.

Let’s act. Start here. Start now.

Join our campaign. Speak out. Enough is enough.

Diane