A long time ago, in a blogosphere far, far away the resident faculty of Blogistan Polytechnic Institute made their way from the wine cellar library where they spent the weekend thinking drinking on our motto of Magis vinum, magis verum ("More wine, more truth") to the hot tub faculty lounge for their weekly game where the underwear goes flying planning conference.
Okay, it was this morning and here in South Blogistan, but it was before Chef made coffee so it feels like forever ago. And besides, we're not going to wait years or decades to tell you what the resident faculty were muttering about for the week. But we will wait a few more minutes.
More below the fold....
First our customary thanks to last week's guest lecturers. Last Tuesday, Professor of Neuroholdemology Caractacus offered data and invited a great discussion asking $$$ in (Gifted) Education, Too Much or Not Enough? And the BPI faculty gained another member. Please welcome our new Professor of Commuhealthmemiofieldrogueology, TheFatLadySings, who earned tenure with her second guest lecture last Wednesday: Memoirs of a Rogue Organizer. Both were excellent and are well worth reading if you missed them.
This Tuesday, Professor Caractacus continues his Things We Learned This Week series by discussing lots of things he learned this week in completing two huge projects that are due today and tomorrow, which also explains why we hadn't seen him for much of last week. On Wednesday, Professor of Topofclassclownistics JanF will escape HEMMED - BPI's state-of-the-art High Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector where she and addisnana research the "Top of the Morning" featurette - and return to the lecture hall for an analysis of the emerging Senate banking regulation bill. As always, Chef will be in the lobby with coffee and bagels. However, the Professor of Astrology Janitor will be busy in HAWED, BPI's not-so-state-of-the-art High Apathy Washers En Dryers.
Note: We currently have no guest lecturers scheduled for next Wednesday, April 21st or the weeks following. If you would like to guest host Morning Feature on a Wednesday, please volunteer in the Tuna Can below.
Thus we return to long ago and that blogosphere far away, which by now was longer ago albeit no farther away, and the mutterings of the resident faculty. And it's about damned time, because this week they will discuss the benefits and risks of patience in political advocacy.
At my local Democratic Party meeting this past weekend, much of the discussion concerned Florida Senate Bill 6, which has now passed both houses of the state legislature and awaits Governor Charlie Crist's signature, or (we advocate) his veto. This bill is a thinly-veiled attempt to dismantle Florida's public school system, the thin veil being a pretext of "accountability." If Governor Crist signs the bill, no one should aspire to be a public school teacher in Florida. Among its provisions:
- Public school teachers hired after July 1, 2010 can be hired for only one-year contracts. During the first five years of a teacher's career, school officials can decide not to renew the contract without cause. To qualify for a sixth one-year contract, the teacher must have been evaluated as "effective" or "highly effective" in at least two of the previous three years. At least half of the teacher's evaluation will be based on students' performance on standardized tests.
- For existing public school teachers and those hired before July 1, 2010, continued teaching certification will be subject to evaluations that are, again, based largely on students' standardized test scores. Teachers must be recertified every five years, and any teacher who was not evaluated "effective" or "highly effective" in at least four of the previous five years will not be recertified.
- Teachers' pay will no longer be increased for years of service, earning advanced degrees, or national board certification. Increases will instead be based on - you guessed it - students' standardized test scores. Other increases may be available for teachers working in "high priority locations," teaching in a "critical teacher shortage area," or assuming additional academic responsibilities. The bill does not define any of those terms.
- Every class at every grade level - K-12 - must be evaluated with a standardized test. For classes whose material is not covered by the FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test), each school district must hire an independent academic testing firm to develop a standardized test. This is an unfunded mandate; the money to develop and administer these tests will come from the 5% of school districts' budgets that the bill would require be set aside for test development and ... teacher pay increases.
- The bill also funds private school vouchers (called "scholarships"), and if this bill is signed that's where any sane person would want to teach. Under the bill, private school teachers need not be certified - nor even have a bachelor's degree - and students in private schools are exempt from the FCAT and other standardized testing.
What does this have to do with patience? This bill represents the near-culmination of a 35-year conservative project to eliminate public primary and secondary education. For much of that time, as we'll see later this week, conservatives advocated that Unthinkable position to shift the Overton Window and enable other policies to "reform" (read: undermine) public schools. If Governor Crist signs this bill - which other states are looking to as a model - the Unthinkable will be one step closer to becoming Policy.
It took conservatives decades to get this far, and now Floridians are flooding Governor Crist's office with calls demanding he veto the bill. But given his precarious race against ultra-conservative Mark Rubio in for the GOP nomination in this year's U.S. Senate race, it's hard to be confident.
Perhaps we can stop this bill. Either way, progressives will need years if not decades to repair the damage conservatives have done to our public education and other basic government services. We have to start that work now, but we can't expect to see the results immediately.
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Happy Monday!