They have been basing K-12 school grades on a single high-stakes test which most feel is just about meaningless. Now they are going to start in on grading colleges, and they have the nerve to compare it to buying a blender.
“It’s like rating a blender,” Jamienne Studley, a deputy under secretary at the Education Department, said to the college presidents after a meeting in the department’s Washington headquarters in November, according to several who were present. “This is not so hard to get your mind around.”
Talk about a condescending attitude?
And good old Arne Duncan's back again with the hackneyed term the "reformers" use to refer to public education.....the "status quo".
Arne's words:
“We have a financial and moral obligation to be good stewards of these dollars,” Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, said in an interview. He said schools often did a poor job of providing information to prospective students and their parents, making the choice of a college complicated. “To defend the status quo, for me, you can’t do that.”
Trust me the status quo is one heck of a lot better than turning schools over to management companies that are NOT regulated and have no oversight.
And now they want to take on the colleges. The college presidents are angry.
According to a New York Times article Obama is getting a little belligerent about being questioned about the new policy.
But officials said Mr. Obama had repeatedly told his advisers that he was determined not to let college presidents off the hook. Aides said that after the president pledged to deal with rising college costs in his 2013 State of the Union address, he kept rejecting policy ideas as too timid and demanded tougher proposals.
....Some college presidents accused Mr. Obama and his top aides of being obstinate.
...Ms. Muñoz countered that Mr. Obama had no patience for anyone who attempted to block the effort.
“For those who are making the argument that we shouldn’t do this, I think those folks could fairly have the impression that we’re not listening,” Ms. Muñoz said. “There is an element to this conversation which is, ‘We hope to God you don’t do this.’ Our answer to that is: ‘This is happening.’ ”
Let them off the hook? For what?
In a post from the Chronicle of Higher Education we learn that Arne Duncan told a committee they would go ahead with this even without the funding. BTW they are seeking millions in funding to grade colleges at a time that our government won't approve the unemployment pay extension, when food stamps are being cut, and our veterans are not being properly cared for.
College-Rating System Will Go Forward, Duncan Says
The U.S. Department of Education plans to continue its push for a college-rating system, even if Congress doesn’t shell out the $10-million the agency is requesting to develop the program and put it in place.
When Education Secretary Arne Duncan appeared before a Senate subcommittee that oversees appropriations for education on Wednesday to discuss the department’s proposed budget, Sen. Jerry Moran asked what the agency would do if it didn’t get the money.
Mr. Duncan responded by saying the department would move forward with the initiative, but the money "would be very, very beneficial."
It's hard to believe that public school teachers and parents across the country who are deeply concerned about Arne's policies are all wrong. It's hard to believe that college presidents around the country who are calling the president "obstinate" about policies they believe will be harmful are equally wrong.
Too many people in the field of education are stunned and appalled at this administration's educational policies.
It's time to listen to them. There's a word to describe when politicians and basketball players set themselves above those involved in the education system......it's called arrogance.
It's setting up to be a contest between educators and politicians. Doesn't need to be that way.
I often feel this administration has a punitive attitude toward public school teachers. Perhaps college presidents are feeling a little like that now.