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Hammer and Sickle High: 'Obamunism' Indoctrinates the Schools
The communist plot to infiltrate America's schools is almost complete.
At least, that is, according to Jim Greer, chairman of the Florida Republican Party who recently testified, "As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology"-referring to the commander in chief's scheduled address of the nation's schools on Tuesday, September 8th.
Right-wing talk-show hosts like Glenn Beck have made Obama's speech to the children their vein-popping tirade du jour and ABC News reported that some school districts in six states--Texas, Illinois, Virginia, Wisconsin, Missouri and Minnesota--are refusing to air President Obama's speech to students. A small but noisy set of parents have pledged that they will keep their kids home from school on Tuesday rather than allow their children to be brainwashed by 21st century Bolshevism. Racism simmers beneath much of the vitriolic opposition to Obama and has even boiled over into open bigotry, as Teresa Kopec, a parent from South Carolina reported, "I just got anonymous phone call calling me a ‘n*gger loving communist' for giving pro-Obama statement to local paper."
What sedition is Obama planning to spread that has conservatives frothing at the mouth?
The White House released an outline of Obama's address that reveals he will take up such known socialist themes as getting good grades. The administration has also prepared a Leninist lesson plan to accompany the speech that suggests, "Teachers might conduct a ‘listening with purpose' exercise based on the themes of inspiration and challenges."
Regardless of how cross-eyed with rage they get, the right-wing couldn't be more erroneous when they spittle about Obama's desire to paint the White House-or the schoolhouse-red. I should admit that I haven't read all three volumes of Das Kapital, but I don't think Marx ever said anything about workers of the world uniting to bailout bankers with hundreds of billions in taxpayer money. Jettisoning even his tepid public option, Obama is poised to cave to the for-profit health insurance companies. But it's in education-through his relentless push for the privatization of the public schools in the form of charter schools-where Obama's dedication to the free market put him in a class of his own.
The public schools represent one of the last free public government services guaranteed to all-and one of the last great frontiers for corporate America. With the right-wing school voucher programs discredited, the school privatization movement has reinvented itself with a liberal veneer in the form of the charter school lobby. Charter schools operate by taking public money and placing it in schools that are outside of public oversight, and are run by independent charter associations or for-profit entities. Often times the CEOs of these charters garner bloated salaries and-just like health insurance companies-they often deny applicants deemed "high-risk."
Obama's charisma and liberal credentials have helped put the charter school movement on the fast track-along with his Race to the Top Fund, designed to pressure school districts around the country to turn significant portions of their schools into these unaccountable charters or be cut off from the desperately needed federal dollars. As the Washington Post reported, "President Obama is leaning hard on the nation's schools, using the promise of more than $4 billion in federal aid-and the threat of withholding it-to strong-arm the education establishment to accept more charter schools and performance pay for teachers." It seems the plan is working with the recent news that the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted 6-1 to authorize opening up over 250 schools to bids by charter schools and other outside entities.
Obama defended the Race to the Top Fund saying, "It's not based on politics, it's not based on who's got more clout, it's not based on what certain constituency groups are looking for, but it's based on what works."
But the fact is, charter schools rival investment banks for best example of the failure of the free market. In the largest study on charter schools to date, Stanford University found in their Walton Family (of Walmart infamy) funded study that students in more than 80 percent of charter schools either performed the same as-or worse than-students in traditional public schools on mathematics tests. More damning, thirty-seven percent of charter schools students posted gains that were "significantly below" what their students would have realized if they had enrolled in their local traditional public schools instead.
For Obama to truly earn the socialist moniker his right-wing antagonists have branded him with, this is the speech he would need to deliver to the children of America:
As another school year begins, I have chosen to address the nation's children because dramatic changes are needed if we are to ever attain a society fit for you to grow up in.
I have come to realize the hypocrisy of scolding America's youth for not taking more personal responsibility for their future when we don't ask the same of America's elite.
Today, I pledge to nationalize the banks that took hundreds of billions of dollars from your parents in the form of taxpayer bailouts after sabotaging the global economy. I will use the proceeds to provide a single-payer "Medicare for All" health system that can ensure students come to school healthy and ready to learn. Furthermore, I will withdraw all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and with the money and morality saved from not killing people around the world, build the strongest public school system the world has ever seen.
Remember to always study hard-with all the new jobs I am creating in healthcare and education we will soon need smart young people like you working to meet the needs of millions who previously were neglected.
If Obama delivers this speech on Tuesday, I would be happy to write an apology to Glenn Beck requesting forgiveness for not heeding his warning of creeping socialism.
- Posted in
94 Comments so far
Show AllIt is very safe (a sure bet) to say that Obama the Corporatist will never deliver the speech Hagopian penned above.
But corporate shills such as Glenn Beck would never bite the hand that feeds them by pointing out the fact that our nation is a Corporatist-War State whose endless wars for global dominance and welfare for Wall Street Banksters are what have really bankrupted us, fiscally as well as morally.
Sioux Rose
Obama never fails to deliver to his corporate capitalism sponsors. Those charter schools are to education what Blackwater is to the armed forces. Privatization only succeeds in aggregating substantial profits to the few at the top, while leaving those impacted to struggle with piss poor "results." Like a giant bulldozer, its ethos crushes one area after another. It is the cancerous curse that is taking down what so many endeavored to build. The U.S., now in the throes of karmic blowback, is being directly impacted by the same insidious force that has devoured other nations along with their respective assets. The great hope is that the thing will implode on the basis of its own insidious devices.
If mankind sustains across the next decades while facing the calamitous outcomes of policies that only marginally differ from state-sponsored suicide, then the entire playbook of what does NOT work will have been written by recent U.S. administrations. Clear, and in plain sight, are all the things NOT to do lest the plan be to eviscerate a nation's economic structures, compromise its citizens' health, consciously choose to waste the minds of its young, while also pushing back the hands of time & progress, to invert all principles relevant to a democratic/representative society. Every empire has its day. The Chinese I ching speaks of the rhythmic forces that allow ANY thing to build up to attain its transitory moment of power. Inevitably, these cycles invert and what once existed as power, then disintegrates. WE are in that second phase now. Perhaps no momentum can stop it. What is wisest is to plan a new "Phoenix strategy," which is to say, what to work towards resurrecting from the proverbial ashes. I think for many of us, that will represent the time when whatever we embodied to gift back to fellow citizens receives its call, and moment of fertile opportunity.
Sioux Rose - your observations about charter schools (the privatization of public education at taxpayers expense - ala "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein)is spot on. Charter schools will be driven by the profit motive - not by educational merit, the welfare of all children, or the professionalism of its staff. It will be a bottom-line, cost-management operation which will ultimately view the child as a commercial commodity to be bought (recruited), sold (removed for 'non-performance') and will, like everything else publicly funded and privatized - have no accountability to those it serves.
Sioux Rose
ODOCO: Great posts. I read an article in Harper's about 2 years ago about the mania around charter schools. Part of the formula was to get them to meet certain exam-based criteria that were impossible TO meet. The next phase (in this economic chess game) was that the corporations behind these programs could take over the schools where the parameters were not met. It's another covert land grab. In this case the areas being colonized are the fresh, native dimensions of children's minds! I think if the right wing could find a way to package shit and sell it at a profit, or the organ remains of immigrants, they would do so, cheerfully.
The right wing media chamber pumping up all the accusations against Obama when he is following the Bush script to the LETTER of the law(less), makes one realize that a lot of $ is going into creating the FIERCE ILLUSION of political party differences precisely when there IS none! IT is more than curious!
I am quite clear on why illusion and deception have come to inhabit such high places in our present era. This Final Phase of the Piscean Age is all about the devices of delusion being creatively utilized to imprison a population and preclude that awakening that might plausibly lead it away from a mass extinction. In astrology Pisces rules hospitals, prisons, mental institutions, all forms of addiction & escapist behaviors, and in the advanced: great compassion, an empathy that extends to others on the basis of the countless shared wounds humanity has suffered. But a new Age is "playing," and it will influence how we live and relate to one another. It requires MANY to "change the channel" on their cognitive receptors. The surfeit of violence and depravity may facilitate this very thing!
I'm having a hard time staying with the commentary.
As i understand No CHild Left WIthout a Kick in the Behind, the law was a 100% corporate buyout of education.
it's already a done deal.
There is no local control!
Let me offer proof.
(By the way, I ran an educational program for young children which was sponsored by a charter school.)
In 2014, a school needs to get 97% of their students to pass "the test."
if the school fails, then the local school board gets to pick from 3 national corporations to run their school.
This applies to ALL schools, regular and charter.
How many schools can get 97% of their student body to pass the test?????
Da...
obviously, NCLB is not a challenge.
The testing is simply a mechanism to implement the PHASED IN TAKE OVER OF THE ENTIRE PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM.
I tell my teacher friends to get real.
Ain't no corporation gonna hire high wage teachers.
The moral equivalent of Walmart and Home Depot took over.
They're gonna hire low waged tutors (which is what I got to be), with no benefits to run most of the show.
Set it up kind of like McDonalds.
maybe they'll hire 2 high waged teachers for the whole school house.
The teachers set the whole thing up by hanging on to tenure.
NCLB passed using that issue as the smoke screen.
And the guns still smokin,
Teacher merit pay is now the central issue being discussed.
THE REAL ISSUE IS THAT THE CORPORATIONS OWN THE WHOLE DAMM THING.
Without so much as a peep of debate.
(by the way, the corporations never have to get their students to pass the test)
And...the final kicker... those vultures FLUNK OUR KIDS AS PART OF THEIR TAKE OVER SCEME.
Boy get me mad.
Those low life creeps.
Go www.sudval.org
unite to take back education.
and instill democracy at the same time
from the depths of hell can be born true transformation
someone start a blog so we can organize
>>In 2014, a school needs to get 97% of their students to pass "the test."
if the school fails, then the local school board gets to pick from 3 national corporations to run their school.
This applies to ALL schools, regular and charter.
I really did not know the full extent of what this NCLB was all about.
I mean WOW. A Corporation will run the school?
I start to think that DR Stangelove alive and well and they all have come up out of their bunkers to take over.
In 2014, a school needs to get 97% of their students to pass "the test."
Very interesting information! Thanks! Since my children, who are both in college, aren't attending public school, I'm sort of out of the loop, so to speak. I have no idea how 97% of young people can be expected to pass "the test." Of course, they can "juke the stats."
A new charter school in NYC -- in Washington Heights -- is scheduled to open this fall, paying teachers $125,000, "plus a potential bonus based on schoolwide performance." At opening, the school is supposed to employ 7 teachers, with 120 students enrolled, according to the NY Times. However, the principal will be paid $90,000 per year. I can't help but wonder if the differentiation in pay will create an imbalance of power. Who knows?
GwNorth and Kay
What to do?
Did you check out www.sudval.org?
our kids - aren't we supposed to fight the revolution - not them.
What say we drum one up?
Anyone else up for it?
odoco
Want to really read about indoctrination of public schools financed by taxpayers' dollars - read about the Texas State Board of Education and what they have recommended be included in their history textbooks - a complete rightwing dogmatic epistle about how conservatism is the heart of America - WITH NO DISSENTING VIEWPOINTS. Reagan, Phyllis Schafly, Jerry Falwell / Religious Right, etc. Is this the objective, rational education most of us want for our children? It is, indeed, the long-awaited advance of the loonies into the realm of public education - and Texas is not the stopping point . . . .
This is fascism: this is very, very close to what the Nazi's did in Germany in the mid and late 1930s.
Why should this concern you in Vermont? Maine? Minnesota? Iowa? Because the textbook publishers often follow the recommendations of Texas in the writing of curricular material because Texas is such a large market and the textbook publishers make tons of money selling their books to this state. If they refuse to include Texas-style propaganda, the state board will recommend that its independent school districts buy from another vendor.
It is way past time that the Left in this country get just as radical, just as 'in your face,' just as dogmatic and tireless as the idiots, racists, corporatists and fascists have become on the other side. I truly believe our mission, our goals, are driven by compassion, equality, fairness and justice. I will let you guess what motivates the other side of the political quagmire we have created in this country.
odoco
"read about the Texas State Board of Education and what they have recommended be included in their history textbooks - a complete rightwing dogmatic epistle about how conservatism is the heart of America - WITH NO DISSENTING VIEWPOINTS."
They certainly have...again and again its not going to happen. The TEA has some....well I can't even see that far right folks on board and they take a run at this tripe all the time. Not happening. The Left tries the same thing the other way with the same result. Texas is a centrist state...with wings.
"If they refuse to include Texas-style propaganda"
Hold off on the stereotyping please.
Our country has as little interest in the Lefts radicals as it does the Rights. Don't believe for one moment its just Liberals that are on the side of the Angels. There are plenty of good folks "driven by compassion, equality, fairness and justice" in the center and on the right.
odoco
Where are those folks at in the leadership roles of the republican party?
They aren't in leadership roles, most aren't Republicans I think. Do the Republicans HAVE any leadership???
PS. They aren't pushing "Creationism" through the TEA either!
odoco
1. The "right" has 10 of the 15 members of the state school board on its side
2. Texas is a centrist state? - with your governor openly talking about the right to secede from the union, and a small number holding supportive rallies at the state capitol, etc. Please explain how you consider it to be a centrist state.
3. Sorry about the stereotypical comment, 'texas style propaganda.
4. When and how have the 'lefties' tried the same thing with large textbook publlisher - be specific, please. And what was the specific lefty message they wanted included in the books. Maybe you refer to gender equality issues, diversity, religious diversity, the inclusion of minority and female role models, etc. which the 'right' was upset about. I wouldn't consider these as 'lefty' issues, but as an honest appraisal of US history which has been historically excluded from history books until recent years.
5. I am sure there are good folks across the political spectrum, but when I constantly hear and see, as witnessed on the corporate run media, constant examples of right-wing hatred, conservatism in the veil of constant war, unbridled profit, death threats, intimidation, etc. I wonder where those 'reasonable' people are on the Right. I know they are there - but why aren't they being heard? Is it because they have become afraid of their own constituents? That is an interesting question, think not?
Summation: I was in public education for 28 years - I am well aware of the pressure that groups from Texas has tried to employ on textbook manufacturers - as you obviously are. The fact they have had little success in the past does not allay my fears for the future. The rightwing extremists in this country are more rabid, more confrontational and less intelligently informed than I can ever remember - unless of course you think Hannity, Limbaugh, and Beck are good sources of information. This is why I am concerned Henry8 = not personal toward you, but I have seen this coming for a very long time, as have national teacher associations, the National Council for Social Studies, etc.
2. You can't pay attention to Perry. The wind may be blowing the other way tomorrow!
Aside from that our Capitol and Major University are to the Left, the Southern part is sort of left center, the east is sort of center right, the west is all over the board...when you put it together you get an overall center oriented balance, shewed to the right on economic policies. Thats why we are not in debt. Basically a conservative or moderate state with pockets of Limbaugh dittoheads!
4. Far leftists have tried to introduce multi-cultralism as a desired goal which is silly, but you hit the nail on the head with "gender diversity" issues. Thats one thing thing that won't fly here for a while. Too many old bible thumpers. But not as many issues as the Social Conservatives keep pushing by a long shot. You are right there.
But let me put you at ease about the Right Wingers, they couldn't get it through when they were much stronger and they sure can't now. Not going to happen. We won't let it. Texas will stay a centrist, moderate/conservative state for the rest of my lifetime I'm sure. But it changing as we speak. The kids born about 25 or so years ago are color blind and don't hold the prejudices a lot of us did and still do in many cases. And I mean prejudices of blacks, latinos and asians too.
5. "I am sure there are good folks across the political spectrum, but when I constantly hear and see, as witnessed on the corporate run media, constant examples of right-wing hatred, conservatism in the veil of constant war, unbridled profit, death threats, intimidation, etc. I wonder where those 'reasonable' people are on the Right. I know they are there - but why aren't they being heard?"
You are hearing them, but just as the Right does, they are demonized by the Dems. But most don't demonstrate, they call their Congressmen, Senators and local leaders and raise hell with them.
"The rightwing extremists in this country are more rabid, more confrontational and less intelligently informed than I can ever remember - unless of course you think Hannity, Limbaugh, and Beck are good sources of information."
I personally think they are a smaller group by far, more strident maybe because the real nuts are most of whats left. I loved your joke of putting "information" in the same sentence with Hannity, Limbaugh, and Beck!
Believe me I understand its a good idea to keep an eye on the radicals none the less...I just want to assure you we do. Never thought you make things personal my friend. I'm flat not a fan of TEA in any case.
People that make personal attacks are small folks, invariably narriow minded and intolerant. Usually without much experience either. You fit none of those criteria.
Again we have the irony of Obama being accused of being a socialist when his words, deeds and actions reflect that of being more concerned for the welfare of those in power than he is for those who have suffered under the sting and avarice of the corporate system.
One finds it curious how the United States is the only country that does not honor the worker on May 1. It is more than likely that is because leaders like Obama do not want the working class in this country to associate that day with anything that might hint at a revolution or a reconsideration of a system from which capitalism profits from the backs of the working and lower classes of this country while the average salary of the CEO has increased exponentially during the last forty years.
I think it is funny that the repubs are yelling socialism when they almost always insist on the daily recitation of the socialist "pledge of allegiance" insist that the military be able to recruit in schools even in some cases organizing every student to take the ASVAB. It is possible that Obama is going to tell people to study hard and stay in school so that maybe they might make their own decisions about the force feeding conservative BS they have been taught?
THIS is entirely off topic but I can't help it. I'm about to fly!
I've been trying to get a local chain to donate 30 or 40 cases of canned goods to our Food Pantry. I just got a call from their CEO (on a holiday no less) whom I've never gotten to speak to more than once.....He just told me they are going to donate a Bob Tail truck full. 1/2 the truck this month and half the next!!!!
Its even anonymous so they aren't doing it for credit...all CEO's are not bad!
YEE_HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is going to be dancing tonight!!!!!!!
I apologize for off point posting, but I couldn't help it.
YAAAA-HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Henry8, I just knew you were a corporate kiss-ass and a fascist capitalist shill. And look how little it took to buy you off. Congress is a paragon of virtue compared to you, as it takes a lot more than beans to buy them off. Yes, apparently Henry8 thinks food pantries, not socialism, is the answer to capitalism's problems. That, and kindly CEOs. You know, people like Warren Buffet; who shelters his stockholdings (in a stock price-support scheme) from taxation, who gives absolutely no dividends even to his very own shareholders lest some of it be taxed, and who apparently, according to the capitalist value system, is all by himself himself worth about ten million other people.
Yeah Woopie, some CEO just donated a small number of cans of beans to people discarded by the system that the CEO benefits from and works to maintain. That CEO probably laid off more than a few of the people seeking those beans at your pantry, Henry8 - or, like WalMart workers, work for him but STILL need the beans. That CEO probably gives far, far more than beans to regressive organizations, fascist right-wing media, and the Republicans that ruined this country (with an assist by the feeble Democrats), thus negating any good accrued by his donation of cans of beans.
And as for taking no credit for it, I wonder how his CFO is going to write those beans off the corporate taxes... maybe it was ten trucks on paper.... who's counting? Kinda like when the values for donated 'used' cars get wildly inflated for tax write-offs. And you think this absolves the whole capitalist system? The one that just took $13 trillion dollars of government, therefore socialist money, just to survive? Not to mention the 3/4 Trillion dollars of Direct and Public Donations from the government? And this after hundreds of large corporations have had NO tax bill for years and years, after all the special arrangements and deductions made by a bought-off Congress?
Yet you say 'yeehaa' and 'yahoo' to the wonderful, fabulous CEO donating literally beans, and then you complain about OBAMA being weak and subservient and a milksop? You have got Obama beat, hands-down, you center-right capitalist hypocrite.
Thats me! Just an old Hypo! Thanks for the kind words. Someday I may accomplish as much as you do, you never know!
wow. I am just shocked. This CEO, this man, this one single human being, is now responsible for the meltdown of the entire system? If he had said "no," what kind of rant would you have gone off on?
The system is failing, true. But to turn this man into the devil as you did, is just wrong.
I've always believed part of the stimulus plan should have been to give $1 million to EVERY food bank in the country. There are maybe what - a few hundred? A few hundred million is nothing in a multi trillion dollar package. But what an immediate stimulus this would give to just about every community in the country! First of all, we'd be taking care of those who are the worst off in this meltdown. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to care about humanity enough to try to keep everyody fed?
The money would be spent in local stores and farmers markets. It would be a wonderful boost to the local economy.
At the core of this issue is my disgust at the fact our society is so dependant on "charity" to take care of the hungry among us. There but for the grace of god go you or I. I agree that too often acts of charity seem to be done only to make the contributor feel good, or to increase their goodness in the eyes of their community. But it's phenomenally worse if we don't do anything to try to take care of our fellow human beings. At the other end of this, I think many people don't give to charity, and don't care if people are starving because they think the starving people are somehow inferior. Losers. Unworthy of eating. Unworthy of living? (no food - no life). None of us are in any position to pass judgments like these.
Millions of people are in this situation because of jobs they lost after working for decades at the same place. Or maybe a major health issue affected somebody in their family, and they are financially ruined.
This could happen to you. There but for the grace of god...
dianere,
I agree with your post!
And, well said!
Giving more money to food banks is a great idea. But, don't stop there!! Continue on with this money by helping to create programs that teach people how to grow their own gardens. It isn't going to solve all of the hunger problems, but at least it goes beyond just treating the symptoms. It will also help give people a very important tool for learning how to survive beyond this god awful system we live in -- especially when this system crashes in the not-too-distant future.
Let me get this right: Glenn Beck et al. are screaming about a fictional 'Obama socialist' plot to 'indoctrinate' the innocent little kiddies into a state controlled society, at a time when the rapidly increasing number of homeless families and their children are straining overtaxed school boards who have been burdened with unrealistic testing to insure 'No Child Left Behind', while simultaneously dealing with severe overcrowding in the classrooms, and a declining educational level in general. Does that about sum it up?
Way back during the presidential campaign, I always had the feeling Obama was talking out of the side of his mouth, quietly laughing at the rubes who were about to accept the charade as truth. At least McCain and Caribou Barbie wore their deceit and greed out in the open.
Now you have a president who to this day, refuses to talk about who he worked for, and what his position was in the company. Incidentally, John Pilger did some background checking, and turned up that Obama worked for an outfit called 'Business International' (I think I remembered that right...) once upon a time, which turns out to be a CIA front company specializing in black ops and weapons smuggling. Is BO a 'Company Man'?
Could be. It would sure as hell explain a lot now, wouldn't it?
Walk in peace.
Galenwainwright... (September 7th, 2009 12:02 pm) gave us a really nice post, exposing the haze of trash talk used by the right fanatics in their attempt to dissociate themselves from Obamination, a man whose policies and actions are barely distinguishable from theirs.
I suppose the right will say quite literally anything to maintain the twin illusions that we have a multiparty system and a functioning democracy, and that the Repugnants are really different from the Dims.
And that scoop about Obama working for the CIA, now that's a good one. Sure would explain quite a number of things. Wish we could get more info about that.
Every day you drink a little bit of arsenic. Just a little bit. After a while you feel sick but you can continue to function. Then one day, you just keel over dead. That is the fate of the United States.
Not that I ever expected Obama to be such, but Obama could have been an actual Scandinavian-style socialist, and gotten no more attacks from the right than he is getting now.
Good point! Obama could have become a REAL Socialist and put true changes in place and not gotten any more flak than he has for his wimpish minimalist "change". Poor Barack. Way too timid to do what needs to be done.
Timid and wrong headed. He's stuck in a system that rewards him, and is too corrupt to realize it or care. I have little sympathy left for him.
As a former public school teacher in the State of Florida, I want to say that Jim Greer, Chairman of the Florida Republican Party is right--public education has been ruined in Florida--but the cause has been his own as well as the Democratic Party.
School vouchers, charter schools, high stakes tests (which require inordinate amounts of instructional time be taken up "teaching the test" instead of the subject matterr) and lastly but not least No Child Left Behind (which was implemented from K-12 all at once instead of being gradually introduced grade level by grade level each year) are the chief culprits and were suppported by both political parties.
The consistent result has been to confuse, demoralize, and frustrate both students and their teachers. The underlying motivations are:
1. The determination of the overwhelming majority of this country to resegregate the schools of this country on some basis other than overt racism.
2. The determination of the priviliged classes to restrict quality education as much as possible to only those who can afford to pay for it at for profit private schools.
Poet
odoco
Poet - your last two points illuminate the question beyond debate. Once the system has been rigged to that extent - the separation of students and the discriminate funding of different levels of education, the battle for the minds of the young will have been won. The greatest fear of those now running this government is the possibility of the 'people' to eventually come together enmasse to confront the system: school vouchers and privatization will be instrumental in defeating such a move by the masses.
The question never answered by those proposing such schemes is this: Who will educate the poor of the inner-cities and the poor of the rural areas as to what their real options are? Are if marginally informed, how many of those poor will be able to take advantage of the 'opportunities' offered by such a system?
In 28 years as a teacher / curriculum specialist / principal I always knew that the child had to be the centerpiece of our efforts, all else mattered little. When a system is implanted that does not respect that credo, the child is lost, and so is society.
Poet
I have a similar understanding of the current path of education.
But, for clarity, I might add.......
No Child Left Without a Kick in the Behind was a 100% takeover of the entire public educational system.
It's a done deal.
All regular schools, and all charters are owned by corporations.
In 2014, a school has to get 97% of their kids to pass the "test" or they are taken over by 1 of 3 corporations.
To me, that is as good as a done deal.
I have experienced teachers working harder and harder to avoid the takeover.
I'm like, WAKE UP!
These tests aren't a challenge.... they're the mechanism to phase in the takeover.
(the percentage of kids that have to pass goes up each year, culminating in the 97%)
Start squawking teachers, cause its all over.
Corporations are out to make the bucks.
They're going to run the show with low paid tutors.
Each school will probably only have a couple highly paid staff.
And educaiton will be set up like McDonalds, so anyone can teach "the stuff."
Have you talked with teachers in the corporate programs about the curriculum?
It's beyond my imagination.
All this talk about merit pay and the schools needing money... smoke screen.
So, want to make some sort of plan to do something about it?
What do you say?
It's not surprising that the Florida republicans are appalled by the president's speech. During Jeb's time in office, he did everything he could to cripple public education so parents would feel compelled to spend tuition at private schools. Nothing has changed for these people.
The South will rise again! This is a mantra for many below the Mason-Dixon line. They seem appalled anytime anyone in the United States is even suspected of being one of those "liberal niggers or sympathizers" who isn't even (gasp) a true citizen. To them, the United States is still a slave society and the Civil War was merely an unfortunate misunderstanding in which the wrong side was able to bully patriotic Americans into saying 'uncle'.
If Obama had done something other than flip progressives the bird for the last eight months, his base might be rising up to defend him on this issue. But why fight for a guy who's going to shaft you?
These outrageously stupid right-wing attacks put liberals in a bind. They feel they need to defend Obama, even while he is stabbing them in the back. It's quite a racket - labeling an extreme supporter of big capital a "Socialist." There is literally no Left left in the public debate. Very Orwell!
"Very Orwell!"
Yep, almost seems scripted at times.
No kidding. It'll be interesting to see what he actually says to the kids.... With a no-holds-barred honesty like or greater than the one suggested in this article to pop the entrenched universe masters out of their comfy smugness (I WISH) , he COULD consider unbuckling that unbelievably short mind-control leash they've got him on. He COULD say something radically original about HOPE or CHANGE that would do something other than just add to the Orwellian lexicon we've had going for quite some time now. How many more 'teachable moments' are there to be squandered I wonder? Honestly, I feel kind of sorry for the guy. It's a poisonous stew there in Washington. If I prayed I'd pray for Obama to channel Utah Phillips tomorrow and from here on. Maybe a day will come when kids aren't seen as a way to manipulate the public, but as actual human beings that are going to have to LIVE in a future profoundly influenced by our current willingness or unwillingness to face up to our fallible and inhumane economic system.
odoco
thanks for mentioning Utah; a hell of a man, one needed more now than ever. Rest in peace brother.
For those of you who don't know who Utah Phillips is - google his name, listen to his music and philosophy - he'll tell you the truth whether or like it or not :)
This morning, Amy Goodman rebroadcast her 2004 interview with Utah Phillips. Although I had previously seen the interview, I was happy to watch it again!
Go to:
www.democracynow.org
Let's see, Bush could manipulate the media by landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier in military drag (even though he managed to stay out of the military), and Obama shouldn't be allowed to give a pep talk speech to students urging them to stay in school? It's time racist neo-con brats stopped having any effect when they decide to scream and stomp and make a scene. After all, they were defeated in the last election----weren't they?
odoco
Good point - Obama's biggest mistake in presenting the initial program of instruction to the schools was to, however tangentially, identify himself / his life / his books as part of the curriculum offering. This gave the Right an immediate opening to attack the presentation as part of the cult of personality.
These are the same stupid, ignorant people who have been raging in public about health care reform being Communist, Socialist, how it is a plot to put Republicans in FEMA camps, how it's a plot to turn old people into Soylent Green and feed them to inner city animals. This latter is a specific paranoia I have seen on YouTube blogs, as well as heard from a prominent Philadelphia Republican. There is so much insane stupidity, which goes on and one. This latest crisis over Obama speaking to school children is absurd ad infinitum. It is psychotic. It is unbelievably stupid. If any of these people really knew what Socialism or Communism was, they would not open their big fat cretinous mouths. I say, let them go to Cuba to see what these things really are. Talk to someone like my wife who grew up oppressed in Communist Czechoslovakia. My wife also was one of the heroes who overthrew these Communists, and helped rebuild a new health care system. She knows what effective health care is, in fact, the WHO sent her around the world teaching other nations how to have effective, economical health care, using the new health care system she invented. What better person to get an objective, informed view from. What does she think about these tea-bagging, gun-totin town hall disruptors, and opponents of health care reform? She thinks they are being brainwashed by health insurance companies, in a manner NO DIFFERENT than the Soviet Union's brainwashing techniques. Hear that? These right wing counter-reactors are no different than brainwashed Communists under the Soviet Union. The fact is, the democratic free societies of Europe today have exactly the kind of health care systems which Obama is trying to introduce to the USA. Instead of calling him racist epithets, these people should support Obama like the hero that he is, and the reforms he proposes will help these people in the end. One last comment, these are the same stupid people who elected George Bush to the White House, not once, but twice. They are the epitome of ignorance.
From the very first day I heard that several billions of dollars in "stimulus-funding" for schools would be at the sole discretion of Education Secretary Duncan, I knew that public education in this country was in for a drastic re-orientation of along the line of his ideological commitment to privatization, charter and military schools, NCLB "accountability" standards on steroids. Now it's all coming true; and now comes the supreme irony that Obama is said to be attempting to foist "socialism" on our innocent children. It's exactly the ploy, as you think of it, that is being used to promote a regressive health care "reform" bill that is heavily industry-friendly. True proponents of universal health care are literally removed from "the table" of the debate as the debates rage (literally) between those who want the regressive status quo and the only slightly regressive (if that) insurance program with a "public option." The Obama team's defense against the "socialism" charge draws the line of debate just to the right of center and leaves out entirely a truly leftist or progressive option of truly universal care for every one as a "human right." But wait a minute, that's downright communistic ("to each according to his need") isn't it, even worse than socialism, so let's get back to that Grand Debate whether to throw in a sop to the people with a "public option" that may buy some votes if it does nothing for the "public."
Thanks for illuminating more of the scripted nature of the "debate."
As I review the nature of the last election, it seems clear it was again "stolen" in the sense that the Plutocracy got just who they wanted as president. Think about it for a minute ..... McCain has always been his own man--a maverick--and the story is that he was forced by GOP managers to accept Palin as veep candidate, which ensured he would lose the election. Personally, I don't see how McCain could be any worse than Obama.
"From the very first day I heard that several billions of dollars in "stimulus-funding" for schools would be at the sole discretion of Education Secretary Duncan, I knew that public education in this country was in for a drastic re-orientation of along the line of his ideological commitment to privatization, charter and military schools, NCLB "accountability" standards on steroids." -- Jerry D. Rose
Exactly right!
Prior to Arne Duncan's appointment by Obama to Secretary of Education, I ran across an article that quoted CEO Duncan (Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago School System) as saying, when asked about military schools in Chicago, and his Quaker roots -- "I come from a Quaker family, and I've always been against war. But I'm going to put the Naval Academy in there, because it will give people in the commmunity (Chicago) more choices."
Now, there's an oxymoron if I've ever read one!
When I did a little more digging, I discovered that Chicago had, at that time, more military high schools than any other city in the United States. With the Naval Academy about to go into the city, that meant a total of 6: Army, 3; Navy, 1; Marines, 1; and Air Force, 1.
More than 300 parents, teachers and community supporters protested turning Senn High School into a Naval Academy -- to no avail. CEO Duncan won the fight despite the opposition from the community.
It is not surprising that the author would quote Standford Univ. study (funded by the Walton Family*) concerning 'charter schools' and their 'effectiveness' and the associations to 'socialism' and 'communism' --in reality, very different approaches. This is not surprising at all since most Americans do not understand the differences between the two---most likely as a result of their american educational back ground ---which in reality is and has been for well over a century at its absolute best: 'mediocre'.**
The author uses many of the necessary 'subliminal references' and the 'postings' to the article are responding according to their ability---based on their 'american education background'.
Their is one undeniable fact about human history and that is that when 'socialism' in its purest form i.e. 'tribalism' is used by human beings as a form of government---it works. This has been proved beyond any doubt by the Native American people, and the fact that the US Gov. has fought the 'tribalism/socialism' 'tooth and nail' from the beginning is 'proof enough'. They would replace the tribal/social-isms with the current form of government---a dismal failure, with the insistence of the Plutocratic Oligarchy.
Communism is simply another form of 'P.O.', and has been a failure where ever it has applied. The fact that so many here making the postings do not understand the difference is my point. The author may not know the differences.
The very real fact that the situation in the education system in the USA that the author is warning is about to be 'changed' by the "Obama admin",----another 'P.O.' "Puppet"
is a failure already can best be exemplified by this very real fact:
The State of Texas recently made the teaching of 'creation doctrine' (my emphasis) in science classes, might be a matter for 'Texans' to be concerned about. However, the companies that 'print' the school books for Texas, print the School books for other states, and they find it too expensive to print 'separate' material. With this move by the 'P.O.' they are able to keep control over a very important matter, and keep the appearance of a 'democratic approach'---as long as most Americans 'think' they are in 'control'---they are easier to control.
* The Waltons and Walmart have had my 'boycott' for many years now and whenever possible (I travel much) I do not make purchases there. 'The Waltons' are major members of the "Plutocratic Oligarchy"---in fact---'Websters' should produce a 'likeness of Ole Sam' to place in the right hand column of their dictionary---( Collegiate) on the page with the definition of "Plutocratic Oligarchy"----
The fact that 'Waltons hired Stanford' to do a study on 'education' and have the 'results' sound like 'Ole Sam' wrote it---is not one bit surprising----this is America;
'anything is possible'.
Standford U. is a bastion of the "P.O." and was founded to be that.
** As for 'higher educatoin' in America, I would remind the readers that GW Bush, quite possibly the most inarticulate and largely ignorant human being to have ever graduated from high school, has a 'degree from Harvard AND Yale'----hey, this is America: any thing is possible. He was president TWICE.
As a 'really big fan of America'---I personally urge all of them, to 'keep on doing as you have been doing'. Please??
Don't change too much. You have been screwing things up for so long now, it would be so out of character for you to change and do something right----maybe even 'well'. It would be so out of character for the 'America that I know so well'; to do something right for a change.
"If the USA were another nation, the USA would invade the USA to keep the worlds safe; and they would be justified."
Good Luck there America-----you really need it.
A real world example of what you speak contrasting the examples of Socialism with Capitalism.
There a large beach on Vancouver Island that was used by First nations peoples for THOUSANDS of years to harvest clams. The tribes would harvest a certain amount of clams each year leaving the smaller ones and enough larger ones to ensure a population for the year following.
There was no PRIVATE ownership of the clam beds. It was not considered someones personal property off which a single person could grow rich. No Chief claimed the clams HIS property extracting payments from others for the use of them. They were owned by the tribe IN COMMON and they had an obligation to ensure the TRIBE was able to exploit that resource into the future.
This Concept is Socialism. No Individual OWNS the clam or the clam beds.
They harvest these clams for thousands of years.
One day the DFO steps in. They decide that they should allow other people the use of the clams. They see the clams as a resource to be exploited for MONEY. They open the clam beds to any and all.
What the people decide to do with the clams is up to them as those they harvest are no longer COMMUNALY owned as they were with the First nations people, but are now the personal property of the person who harvested them to do with as they see fit.
Individuals show up from miles around with buckets. They pick as many clams as they can possibly carry. They pick EVERY clam because if they do not pick that smaller clam, the person next to them will. They are not picking to feed themselves, they are picking to extract the maximum profit in the shortest amount of time. Most of these clams are later sold to restaurants or others for a PROFIT.
Driven by PROFIT and given that once the clam PICKED it now their own personal property, there no incentive to leave a single clam behind because the person next to them who choses to pick it will profit MORE.
These are the underlying principles of Capitalism.
The clam beds were denuded of clams large and small and after having survived as a source of clams for literally thousands of years, failed to produce ANY clams at all for over a decade.
The First nations peoples are trying to restore it to this day.
You write:
"The fact that 'Waltons hired Stanford' to do a study on 'education' and have the 'results' sound like 'Ole Sam' wrote it---is not one bit surprising----this is America..."
But the Stanford study that the Waltons paid for comes out against the privatization and corporatization of education. How is that result "like 'Ole Sam' wrote it"?
Are you saying that Sam Walton was against privatization and corporatization? Or are you saying that supporting public education is no different, or worse than, supporting privatized corporatized education?
FWIW, i do not shop at WalMart - i pretty much do not shop at all except for food (and beer) since the entire economy is a monster that is killing us all and the Earth. And i am no fan of the public education system - if i were raising kids i would not enroll them in school. But what are you saying?
Hey thanks there 'webwalk' you made my point for me, and with such an intelligent and thoughtful posting. And not everyone is meant to 'procreate' either.
Natural selection is a 'mother'.
Good Luck.
Thanks, happy to do my part. No need to respond, anything anyone ever says surely proves your point.