Well, i have been thinking alot lately about how this is the summer and teachers all over are thinking about where to go back to teaching or just walk away and do something else. In the month of August there is a greatr deal of anxiety amongst people in the teaching ranks because they are wondering what kind of year they are going to have. That note I am posting an old comment on a diary by teacherken
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I had alot of fun at the netroots meeting folks and hanging out. I even got to ask a question about NCLB. My husband says I didn' t ask a question but rather made a statement. But I think I asked a question, I asked, "what about NCLB?"
I got an ok answer. I think it was too big a question in the face of energy, environment and fisa questions. But as the weeks now fly past and another school year begins, I remain adamant that NCLB must go and that we NEED another push in science education like right after Sputnik was launched. Not that I am against the arts and fitness, I am not. Art and gym teachers can join in too! Welcome.
But I thought I need to post this information on Heck of job Spellings because many of the netroots folks a re young and a have babies and small children and don' t realize how very devastating NCLB has been to school aged children of America.
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reposting my comment from teacherkens diary for (3+ / 0-)
The information links
because looking at Spellings (1+ / 0-)
education and career, she was always about controlling the schools from a different point of view than educators. This is why I can't stand her. NCLB was her baby, that Paige guy was just a front for her. She has a degree in political science then
From Wiki backed and the ed.gov page,
Born in Michigan, Spellings moved with her family at a young age to Houston, Texas, where she attended public schools. She graduated from the University of Houston with a bachelor's degree in political science.
Prior to her tenure as Education Secretary, Spellings served as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, where she helped create the No Child Left Behind Act and crafted policies on education, immigration, health care, labor, transportation, justice, housing, and other elements of the President's domestic agenda. Previously, Spellings worked for six years as Senior Advisor to Governor George W. Bush with responsibility for developing and implementing the Governor's education reforms and policies.
She worked in an education reform commission under Texas Governor William P. Clements and as associate executive director for the Texas Association of School Boards.
Look who she started working for when she was young, just out of University! She went from university almost immediately in to the job of associate director! She had to have been appointed soon after graduating because if you add for years to her high school graduation then look at when Clements was gov. for the first term you see she had to go straight into the job without ANY time in the classroom.
Associate Executive Director of School Boards? And she is from Houston? As was Paige.
Clements was the first Republican to be governor of Texas since Reconstruction.
(
Clements......Clements was born in Dallas and worked as an oil driller for many years. He founded SEDCO, the world's largest offshore drilling company. He entered politics as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford, in the latter administration under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (1975-77; 2001-2006).)
Look who she is married to......
She is married to Robert Spellings, who practices law in Austin and has lobbied for the adoption of school vouchers in Texas.
And what exactly has been going on in Texas around the time she was "working on educational reform"? Why this of course!
The battle for equal education under the law in Texas was working it's way through the courts!
And wealthy school districts were fiercely fighting the move.
From the handbook of Texas Online:
RODRÍGUEZ V. SAN ANTONIO ISD. Rodríguez et al. v. San Antonio ISD, a class-action suit, was a 1971 landmark case in which a federal district court declared the Texas school-finance system unconstitutional.
The three-judge court ruled on Rodríguez in December 23, 1971. The panel held the Texas school-finance system unconstitutional under the "equal protection" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The state appealed, and the case went to the United States Supreme Court as San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodríguez. The attorneys general of twenty-five states filed amicus briefs on Rodríguez's side.
On March 21, 1973, the Supreme Court ruled five to four against Rodríguez, stating that the system of school finance did not violate the federal constitution and that the issue should be resolved by the state of Texas.
Edgewood ISD v. Kirby in 1984.
from.....http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/EE/jre2.html
The plaintiffs appealed the decision, however, taking it to the Texas Supreme Court on July 5, 1989. On October 2 the court delivered a unanimous 9-0 decision that sided with the Edgewood plaintiffs and ordered the state legislature to implement an equitable system by the 1990-91 school year.
So how is Texas now? Texas schools like elsewhere in America have been suffering from the onslaught against them from vouchers, charter schools and NCLB.
The Republican values of East Texas have been pummeling America's children all across the country. Private, Christian but publicly funded schools for my Christian children and whatever you can afford for Black, brown, or poor yours.
She is a perfect example of "Monica Goodling" and "Brownie" phenomenon of the Republicans finding eager young people who buy into the Republican values for career advancement. She just drank the kool aid a lot sooner than Monica and frankly, once you look at it Bush is another one of that ilk, too.
No real care for the good people of America and their children but rather the "what is in it for me", "I have to be Republican in Texas or I won't get anywhere" type of person.
That is why I think she is the real devil behind NCLB just like Gooding is an important figure in the attorney general scandal.
Brownie.......FEMA
Gooding.......AG scandal
Spelling.........NCLB
Chertoff..........Homeland Security
George Deutsch........NASA
then to add insult to injury (0 / 0)
They cheat!!!!!!!!!!
Paige was appointed the Sec. of Ed. because of the Houston miracle!
Paige declared dropout rates went down in Houston but they really just changed the word dropout to moved to another school!
and now look who cheats on the tests the most. Charter schools!!!!!!
Wide spread cheating in Dallas June 2007
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/060307dnmetcheating.433e87c.html
• Cheating is concentrated in the state's two largest districts – Dallas and Houston – and in charter schools.
Even after accounting for their larger size, cheating is more than three times as common in Dallas and Houston as it is in the state's other large urban school districts. In Dallas, one out of every six high school juniors was flagged for cheating in 2006.
And in the state's lightly regulated charter schools – which are funded with tax dollars but run by private companies or groups – cheating was detected at almost four times the rate of traditional public schools.
all this happened no long after LBJ lost the Dixiecrats to the Republican party after the Civil Rights act and that part of Texas really considers itself part of the old south.
NCLB is the opposite action of the Civil Rights act.