Greetings From Exile! A quick, overwhelmed, stunned THANK YOU for support that feels like a global hug & obviously left me tweetless XO. (Twitter)Status Quo
If you don't fully support Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, Bill Gates, and other "reformers" then you support the "Status Quo." -- This is a sound bite that media has happily and uncritically repeated, uh, repeatedly. It's used just like, "If you are not for the war, you are against the troops," was during the Bush administration. (Brian Crosby at Huffington)
Charter schools, favored by the White House, are even more profoundly segregated than most other public schools. Magnet schools, with a few exceptions, have failed for more than 40 years to achieve more than a pittance of diversity. Principals especially should rise above the token gestures of the past and speak out on this issue with the nobility and the transcendent passion that dignify the crucial role they fill in our society. (Jonathan Kozol, Ed Leadership)
Van Jones: We Must Prepare for Battle
We went from "We Are One" to "We Are Done," Jones tells a D.C. audience. It's time to stop waiting for cues from Washington, he says. (AlterNet)
Regarding "you support the status quo" as the reformy types' retort to anyone who dares challenge them: As I've posted various places, Los Angeles Times reporter Jason Felch, author of the infamous teacher-ratings project, actually fired that accusation at education researcher Richard Rothstein at a panel discussion at UC-Berkeley. This was an event examining the Times' teacher rating project a couple of months ago.
ReplyDeleteIt was a little shocking to hear Felch blurt out that accusation, because at that moment he fully dropped the mask of anything resembling impartial journalist, and momentarily but fully took on the role of partisan education reform advocate, in parroting the standard, scripted reformy sound bite.
Felch was sitting at a table with three panelists, including Rothstein, and all of them responded with spontaneous "hey!" exclamations of objection. There were also similar exclamations of disagreement and objection throughout the audience (which appeared to be largely UC-Berkeley graduate students in the School of Education -- it was a weekday afternoon event held on campus). Felch retracted the comment. But it was like some cartoon scene with the wolf peeking out from the sheep's clothing for a moment.