Friday, June 1, 2012

For the Sake of Public Education, Walker Has To Go!

Great letter in todays JSonline, written by Diane Ravitch, author of the bestselling book "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" (Basic Books)

Here it is in it's entirety(emphasis mine):

If you are concerned about the future of public education in Wisconsin, vote to oust Gov. Scott Walker. Since his election in 2010, he has proved himself to be a steadfast enemy of the public schools.
In the world according to Walker, the best way to reform public education is to demoralize its teachers, attack the teachers' union and hand over more taxpayer dollars to privately managed charters and voucher schools.

He is wrong on every count. In his role as governor, he has a constitutional duty to preserve, protect and strengthen the state's democratic institutions. He has violated that trust by his ongoing efforts to undermine public education, which is a cornerstone of our democracy.

As a conservative, he should have done his best to strengthen the public schools, not tear them down. Conservatives don't blow up traditional institutions. His approach is radical, not conservative.
As the state's leader, he should have set a good example and thanked the teachers who do the public's work every day. Regardless of what the contract says, the typical teacher works 11-12 hours every day, preparing the next generation to take their place as citizens and workers. But instead of acting as a leader, Walker spent the past two years as the state's bully-in-chief, showering the state's teachers with disrespect and blaming them for the ills of an unequal and unjust society.

Walker thinks that he will improve education by getting rid of the union, which is the collective voice of the state's teachers.The nation's highest performing states-Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut-have strong unions, while the lowest performing states-in the Deep South-have weak unions or none at all. Very likely, what Walker really wants is to remove the teachers' voice when legislators are cutting the schools' budget. The best way to silence the strongest voice for public education in Madison is to weaken the teachers' union.

Walker has cut the budget, thus requiring public schools to lay off teachers, increase class sizes, close libraries, and reduce essential services on which needy children depend. Lest we forget, the victims of these budget cuts are children, the very children who will determine the future of the state in years to come.  Walker has expanded the voucher program, so that more children can use taxpayer dollars to enroll in religious schools. But he fails to mention that the Milwaukee voucher program has had unimpressive results. Twenty-two years later, the children in voucher schools get no better scores on the Wisconsin tests than children in Milwaukee's public schools.

Walker claims that competition among vouchers, charters, and public schools will lead to big improvements, but Milwaukee has had exactly that competition for the past two decades. According to the federal assessments, Milwaukee's public schools are one of the lowest performing in the nation. Competition did not make them improve, and the children in the alternative systems are doing no better. Black children in Milwaukee were supposed to be the beneficiaries of school choice, but the federal tests show that black students in Milwaukee have scores no better than black children in the Deep South.

Walker is determined to dismantle the public education system and to replace it with a choice system. But that won't be good for Wisconsin and it won't be good for children. No high-performing nation in the world demoralizes its teachers and creates alternatives to public education.

The best performing nations in the world have built a strong public education system. They respect their teachers. They do not judge them by student test scores. They do not launch public campaigns against their unions (in high-performing Finland, all the teachers and principals belong to the same union). The most successful nations recognize the importance of having teachers and principals who are dedicated professionals, not a revolving door of young college graduates. They understand that successful schools establish a culture of collaboration, not a culture of competition.

It's time for a change in Wisconsin. End the attacks on public education. End the attacks on teachers. It's time for leadership that seeks to build a better school system. It's time for a leader with a positive vision, a leader who puts the needs of children and communities first.
Thank you Diane!  

Let's stop the circus, vote for Tom Barrett on June 5th:



17 comments:

  1. The only thing teachers unions know is gimme, gimme, gimme. They think the primary purpose of the education system is to employ liberal teachers, not educate children.

    My school district spends $20,000 for every student. That is a disgrace. Schools cost too much and taxpayers are already overburdened. The unions had their time to fix things and all they did was reach into the pockets of the taxpayers. Its time for politicans with real conviction like Gov. Walker to come to the aid of the taxpayers who have been fleeced by public unions for decades.

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    1. show me the link that your school district spends $20,000 on every student please....

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    2. I think your mistake, Anonymous at 9:56 am is that teachers in unions are all "liberal". Some of them were very conservative until you guys made them the enemy.

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  2. Replies
    1. Oops. I was saying "Thank you" to Capper. Not to the Anonymous of 9:56.

      Teachers do not deserve what Walker did to them this year. He must ago.

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  3. When Republican trolls are spewing lies on a blog at least we know they aren't out tearing down their opponents signs or committing other acts of vandalism. It makes the streets just a little safer.

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  4. Good job, once again Diane Ravitch, sticking up for teachers, students and public education.

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  5. I have to laugh when people who know virtually nothing about public education, unions, or public educator unions shoot off their mouths about public education. Try talking to people (not just reading a conservative blog or two) who do the work (and, yes, more than the one teacher your sister's brother-in-law's cousin, who works in a small rural school district and knows nothing about urban social problems, knows), Anonymous and other commenters.

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    1. You think there is one person commenting here, but I was the one who said the thing about conservative teachers, not the 11:43 person. I said that because that was the way it was when I taught school. I am not suggesting that every teacher is conservative or that they all think the same. I just noticed that a lot of them where I taught were conservative and I think the Walker bunch messed up with that constituency. Just my opinion.

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  6. If teachers work so long and so hard how about we put in a time clock. You want to get paid you will be at your desk working. Not at your desk you don't get paid. I could be persuaded to support teacher unions if anyone can explain to me how Making it impossible to fire incompetent teachers on the payroll improves education. Is there a single person out there that can tell me how terrible teachers improve education? You want to know where this anger comes from let me explain it to you. For 40 years we have heard about how we don't spend enough on education. We have nearly tripled spending in real dollars per student mostly spent on more teachers and student achievement is stagnant. We have tried it the union way it is time to get rid of the union so we can improve education.

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    1. You are totally uninformed if you think teachers get to stay at their desks all day. They make copies and are presenting all day. They are only at their desks at the end of the day or before school starts for students.

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  7. ".....and hand over more taxpayer dollars to privately managed charters and voucher schools."

    -That is BS, Diane Ravitch! The way most voucher programs work is each family gets to CHOOSE where there tax dollars are spent, instead of sending it all to the public education system. That is why in the urban areas of this country, where the schools are, for the most part, not adequate, there is a HUGE demand for charter schools. If there are 100 spots open, that school will get 10,000 applicants!! Good parents who care about their children want OUT of the public school system. They want CHOICE, not just to kill babies, but to edumacate their kids!!

    NorthEastMik

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    1. If the charter schools are good and have to follow guidelines that the public schools have to follow, that is good. However, it the charter school is a rip off school, it is a ripoff for the taxpayers, the public schools and the schoolkids.

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  8. Bravo Robert Earle. Don't let these hooligans push you around.

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  9. Remember being 14 years old and pulling any little stunt to get attention or try to annoy the teacher because you couldn't handle things in a cool, adult fashion.

    That's the mentality of these asolsecent polluting Capper's blog because he's got their boy Walker dead to rights and is rightfully getting notice for it. They have no relevance in the real world so they have to cling to out-of-state races like Walker's to try to get somem kind of wingnut welfare credentials.

    Screw em, their fear tells us we're right. And moderate all comments, capper. They'll bail soon enough. And spare me your First Amendment garbage - that ends the moment you decide to enter someone else's territory.

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  10. How do you pollute a cesspool?

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  11. This is not a cesspool. This letter by Diane Ravitch told the truth about the public schools. If you think that is a cesspool, you are already a lost soul.

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