Teachers Know Nothing About Politics

So says New York Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan.  

In a recent interview, the chair of the assembly’s education committee bemoaned the ignorance of educators, conflating their angst over laws levied against their livelihoods with their Albany naiveté:

"Sometimes I wish teachers would have a better grasp of the political process. Since Race to the Top, we’ve talked about teacher evaluation [sic] every year because we were sort of forced to by Race to the Top."                                                                  
                  Catherine Nolan (D-NY)
                  June 16, 2015

Though New York’s Race to the Top money evaporated high above the Catskill Mountains before any drops could trickle into classrooms, Nolan lamely implies that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will soon stride into schools across the state and ask for his money back if more teachers aren’t fired. 

When asked about her bill to inform families about abusive state tests, Nolan pivoted to Duncan’s infamous “white suburban moms” comment, blaming her legislative inaction on some federal monster stalking her in the gloom.

It should surprise no one, however, that Duncan does indeed resemble Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, ready to suffocate your child's school with douchebaggery:     
                                                                                  

Nolan proceeded to praise the “continuing process” of Albany—a state government which has historically been as fluid as a vial of horse manure. The careers of educators everywhere apparently now cling to the calves of leaders like Nolan, who three months ago voted to demolish teacher tenure while hitting our kids on their heads with mallets patented by Pearson.

Sadly, Nolan understands education about as much as teachers understand politics, yet parents, teachers and students suffer when ignorant assholes like Andrew Cuomo pass laws on behalf of billionaires.

When asked specifically about the teacher evaluation law she voted for—which includes a convoluted and clunky “matrix” to determine a teacher’s overall rating—Nolan would only say that she supports the seven six members of the Board of Regents who publicly rejected the ludicrous law.

If only Nolan agreed with the dissident Regents before she decided to enshrine the source of their rebellion into law.  

Though politics is a convenient scapegoat, Nolan and others must understand the educational process before surrendering to the political machine. Bad laws are worse than no laws, and take much longer to repeal. New York teachers will likely wait longer than prohibition before getting tenure back, for instance, and the opt-out movement balances on the border of oblivion, its fate likely residing in the Supreme Court.

If Race to the Top is truly to blame for Cuomo's quest to destroy public education, then New York teachers can expect even less help from Nolan should someone like Wisconsin Governor and Alfalfa's brother from another mother Scott Walker win the White House next year. Walker is determined to crush organized labor from the federal perch, and heavy-hearted, spineless democrats like Nolan will scurry beneath boulders if and when Walker assumes office.  After all, if politicians can’t stand up to their own party, they cannot be expected to stand against other parties.  

  

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is not as innocent as he looks

Though teachers may not fully understand politics, they are at least starting to stand up for political change within their own union.

At NYSUT’s annual representative assembly in Buffalo last month, it was standing-room only at the inaugural meeting of Stronger Together, a union caucus formed last year to counteract the kowtowing complacency of NYSUT's current leadership. ST caucus seeks to engender an inclusive, proactive union, a union that hopes to see the train's headlights before tasting its wheels. 

NYSUT passed ST caucus-authored resolutions at the RA, for example, which denounce the Common Snore standards and their inane tests, and the UFT's Michael Mulgrew punched no teacher in the face.

Teachers union thugs in Buffalo

ST caucus will also help remind the public that although teachers may not fully grasp the realities of the political process, they do grasp its potentials, and know that a wise and just society does not place process over product.

New York's political process has left its schools with a rotten product, however, and Cathy Nolan and others seem okay with that, for now. 

Don't worry, teachers...the next legislative session is right around the corner...

What Campbell Brown Won't Ask Teachers

In a recent Twitter exchange, former Assistant Secretary of Education and Campbell Brown backslapper Peter Cunningham paradoxically pleaded for teachers to both speak out for their profession and accept less job security. With the tired cry to "raise the bar" in tow, Cunningham floated the need to "streamline due process," education deformers' kinder, gentler way of demanding an end to hard-earned job protections:

Confronted with a recent statistic from the New
York State Education Department (NYSED) on the average time to settle a teacher disciplinary case (known as a 3020a), Cunningham went silent, likely retreating into his anti-teacher bubble to "fix assignment" (whatever that means) and sort out the other  "issues" he fails to detail throughout the brief exchange. Educators will happily discuss these issues and more with Cunningham, since they actually teach for a living and have everything--and nothing--to lose in the current war on public education. As a self-proclaimed "recovering TV journalist," Campbell Brown can also join the discussion, feeling free to fire off her own questions instead of ignoring teachers' questions.

Six hours after the initial exchange, Cunningham finally surfaced, questioning the NYSED statistic while obliquely championing Arne Duncan's new "teacher-equity" plan:

At press time, neither Cunningham nor Brown have asked on Twitter or elsewhere what teachers need for success with all students, from at-risk to advanced. Had the discussion not been cut short by his deflection and retreat, Cunningham likely would have continued avowing his support for teachers while hoisting the canard that tenure guarantees a "job for life." Not unlike Brown and other privateers, Cunningham seeks to praise public schools while picking their pockets. These efforts fall short in the face of educators, however, many of whom have grown adept at recognizing the stench of bullshit in the deformers' woodshed. It seems Cunningham, who according to his current bio was "responsible for messaging the President and Secretary's education agenda," needs to discover new ways to mask the odious odor of contempt for workers' rights permeating throughout the country.

Even more perplexing is that Cunningham was a member of Duncan's Department of Education in 2010, the same year the department required and approved changes to New York's teacher evaluation laws (APPR) as part of the state's Race to the Top application. Is Cunningham--who supposedly also "advised the Secretary on education policy development"--really unaware of how New York has "streamlined due process" under his own department's urgent guidance? If so, will Cunningham continue criticizing a system he believes doesn't work, maybe even demanding New York return the $700 million it received from his department four years ago? Teachers would gladly comply if it would also allow them to jettison the standards his boss once proudly touted but no longer even refers to by their copyrighted name (their acronym is CCSS).

If deformers are so concerned about raising the bar in classrooms, why do they continue to ignore everything else happening inside of these classrooms except sex scandals and standardized tests? Why aren't people with less teaching experience than actor Tony Danza, for example, curious to know what high standards and excellent teaching actually looks like? Were Brown and Cunningham to ask this question of educators, they would be flooded with examples of teachers ushering and inspiring students through the complexities of life, complexities unmeasurable by test scores. These stories--not VAM stories--could be publicized and dissected in the media, fostering a discussion about the habits of highly effective teachers. This would no doubt go over much better than the divide and conquer tactics of deformers. After all, America loves stories about inspirational teachers--especially true ones.

Why would anyone legitimately interested in improving education not begin by asking what actually happens in classrooms? Is this the deformers' way of treating teachers like professionals? Stay out of their way until test scores drop? Few things are as destructive as hypocrisy, especially when mixed with education. Education is the search for truth anyway, and truth shrivels in the shadow of the hypocrisy and misinformation spread by the likes of Brown and Cunningham. Educators hold the truth in high regard, but will only flee from a profession in which trust has eroded. 

Unfortunately, teacher turnover is one of the deformers' means to end public education, with experienced, unionized teachers slowly transplanted by underpaid, non-union neophytes.  Teachers therefore have no choice but to keep teaching and keep defending the truth; keep doing everything in their power to tip schools away from the precipice of privatization.

And though Campbell Brown won't ask what great teaching looks like, teachers will keep answering it.