I know a lot of people fed up with everything let alone Obama. What kind of a life have we created for ourselves. One big rat race. A never ending rat race.

Draft a movement to dump Obama for 2012 and run another Democratic candidate.

My mother was a teacher. She had friends who were,too. They were all on the same page about one thing: education begins and ends in the home. Schools have had tons of programs from local, state gov't and the feds dumped into their laps and told; " here, you deal with this. " We also have the upper classes rigging school district boundaries, cutting property taxes, funding private religious schools with gov't subsidies and all the racist things racist white pols can think of to destroy the public school systems. It is no wonder Ohbummer hates the teacher's unions because he ,is an elitist who sends his children to white private schools to avoid the social costs and problems mentioned above. He has no solution for public schools because he doesn't believe in them. Ohbummer really is showing his true colors as he fails to govern the country which granted him his powers. He is neither black or white but green: as in Wall Street money and elitist snobbery, special privilege, and, is in truth a hugely delusional, self-righteous religiously grounded Consernik. That he lied to get elected has become painfully clear. If education begins and ends in the home Ohbummer's must have been a drama queen's dream.

"House Democrats proposed spending $10 billion more to shore up school district budgets, paying for it, in part, with $800 million in cuts to Race to the Top and two other competitive grant programs"

How about getting the schools money by cutting MIC welfare programs like the nuclear subs ($2.5 billion each) being built in Connecticut to protect us from the Soviet Union. That's just one program. How about the dozen or so multi-billion dollar carrier battle groups (no other nation even has one CBG) that patrol the seas to enforce multinational corporate access to markets. There are hundreds of billions wasted every year on the war machine that could be used for education and a host of other programs, but somehow, the war machine is sacrosanct.

Next up on the block, after the election, will be Obama's commission suggestions to slash social security and medicare. The republicans have been trying to destroy these programs since their inception. We should give the republicans credit for their patience and strategy. The plan, beginning with Reagan, was to run up the debt to the point where they could say: "Golly Winkers, we sure would like all of these social programs, but we ran out of money." Their plan to create a neo-feudal society is working well.

Once again, we see who this administration is willing to fight and for what he is willing to fight.

And once again, he is fighting progressives and unions to fund/implement right wing policies.

Truly disgusting.

"That he lied to get elected has become painfully clear."

Obama's anti-teacher, anti-public schools education policy is one more (of many) examples that demonstrate the truth of the above statement. The next example undoubtedly will be Social Security and Medicare "reform," which the commission he has established has indicated will be on the chopping block. Meanwhile, military spending goes on without a pause, even as we continue to implode at home.

There has been considerable media coverage of the possiblity, now virtual certainty, that Alvin Greene was a "plant" to run against Republican Senator Jim DeMint in the South Carolina senatoral race, virtually assuring a victory for DeMint.

There has been virtually no media coverage of the possiblity that Obama may have been a similar "plant" in the 2008 presidential campaign, albeit for the purpose of perpetuating the NeoCon agenda under the guise of campaigning for real change. The mask has been slipping for some time, and now it is off.

There is certainly more to come from this administration, and, except for a few token gestures elsewhere, it will all sound like Bush and the Republicans.

The teachers unions have merely acknowledged the obvious. Nothing has changed under a president who promised "change you can believe in."

Perhaps in '012, The Perfessor will be sent to sit in the corner, wearing the tallest dunce cap in the world (inherited from George Wanker Bush) and stay there until he shuffles off this mortal coil. (That's Shakespeare, Herr Perfessor, not Barry White whom I know was your favorite playwright).

Do you understand that your public education system is dying before your eyes? It is slowly being starved and strangled by ideologues. The "Education Industry" is salivating -- this is a good time for venture capital in the education sector . . . if you still have money to invest. And before someone sounds off and tries to argue that kids should be homeschooled anyway -- tell that to a single parent working two jobs -- tell me first what hope there is for democracy in John Dewey's America under these conditions. (I suspect that this is the point of the Obama/Duncan policy: something must be done about that "surfeit" of democracy in America.) Take a good look at healthcare because that's what education is going to look like soon enough. [Spelling mistake corrected.]

It’s fairly easy to summarize President Obama and his cronies: they are right wingers who think they can achieve right wing objectives that Republicans believe in by using governmental tools and techniques that were created for and were for decades reserved for non right-wing objectives. In other words Obama wants to juice the free market with some steroids provided by government money and power.

Since the Republicans themselves really and honestly do believe in free market solutions (as the tool and as the techniques) even more than they do the right wing objectives themselves, Obama’s bringing the government into the mix has enraged most of them, thus their saying no to everything Obama proposes. In other words, don't kid yourself; the Republicans have principled reasons to say no to everything Obama proposes. Republicans generally don't want the government involved even when the objectives and end result are in accordance with their philosophy and beliefs.

(Don't comment about the exceptions; I know that the Republicans use and abuse government power and money for anything related to "national defense" and that they make a small number of other exceptions. But education is an excellent example of the many areas that the Republicans want to keep the federal government almost completely out of.)

Unfortunately for President Obama, the perverse use of government to achieve right wing objectives is only speeding up the decline of the US and is at the same time doing nothing to enhance his reelection chances. The right wing, Republican policies don't work and the "other side of the aisle" detests the tools and techniques being used.

I added this to my custom bookmark feed at http://www.unityprogress.blogspot.com

Let me add a personal story to this discussion.

I had a mentor and teacher who inspired several generations of young people. He also served for many years as chair of his local Democratic Party.

He grew up during the Great Depression, and he was convinced that George W. Bush and the Republicans were leading America into another such economic disaster.

In the mid-2000s, he developed a terminal illiness. In spite of his increasingly frail condition, he continued to participate in local Democratic party activities.

He worked for Obama whenever he could because he believed America was at another major crossroads in its history. Having survived the Great Depression, he was convinced we needed another FDR, and not another Herbert Hoover or George W. Bush. He was hopeful that an Obama presidency would spare the younger generation from what he had experienced as a boy during the Great Depression.

Against his doctor's advice, he insisted on attending his state's Democratic Party convention so he could cast a vote for Obama. He wanted to be there at this turning point in American history.

When Obama was elected, he was hopeful that here was a president with some of the same skills and commitments that FDR brought to the American people in the 1930s.

My mentor and teacher died several months after Obama assumed the presidency. He never lived long enough to really see where Obama was taking this nation.

In retrospect, it is probably a good thing that he passed away before it became evident that Obama, the man he and so many other teachers had worked so hard to elect, had much more in common with George W. Bush than FDR.

At least he died feeling some sense of hope--even if it was false hope.

I recall from 2006 through 2008 debating with people here on CD about Obama and his double talk. I also recalled many here on CD that argued on end about the change that Obama would bring. His record alone proved that the only thing he stood for was himself, as most politicians are. I hate to be the one to say I told you so but I told you so. Moving on (not to be confussed with that sneaky organization that got Obama elected) we must vote him out and vote in Ralph Nader or possibly Micheal Moore. This may all sound like a huge joke but hey we elected a right wing pseudo-liberal to the white house why not try aiming for a true liberal. As for the people asking the question about American intellect, yes Obama won on a slogen "yes we can" and the marines have sent thousands willingly to their death with another slogan " the few, the proud, the marines". I guess as long as it rhymes we fall for it. lol

I have heard nothing from the National Educational Association. What's up with that?

Yeah yeah, they're angry and fed up with him but they're gonna vote for him again in 2012 so why bother?

Duncan took Chicago public schools and militarized them.

Recently, running rat races resounds reasonably.

No money for education, no limits on money for Israel. It is only a matter of time before things get red.

Could anyone care to further elaborate on why RTT is such a poor idea? I just wanted some further perspectives other than that which i can see myself. I do see an immense problem with private schools and privatisation and thats what Republicans want. I dont see a problem with a more diversity in public funded schools which can be access regardless of student family income, which are of different formats and administratively independant. I am a progressive and I believe in publicly funded school systems, and I also believe that teacher tenure is important to avoid an ideological purge to try to remove teachers who refuse to say, teach creationism which i may believe may be behind the attack on tenure. I also believe that publicly funded non-mainstream schools could have teachers who are in a union.

I have read some and the overemphasis on standardised testing could possibly backfire in ways, including that teachers are not the only influence on children, and linking testing to teacher and school funding will likely just simply further entrench resource starving of poorer communities and the cycle of poverty there.

I also believe that overtesting may also hurt students if failings in a few areas in fact threaten the students entire academic career. I do think, that we need to invest more in gifted programs but also not destroy students lives who have many gifts in certain areas but do not meat the one size fits all specification. That someone may be dyslexic for instance but a math genius should not blow up their chances of putting their math work to full use. We do have burn out problems in public schools and there is a need to interest students in subject matter and present learning in a way that instead of being a forced drudgery like taking a nasty medicine and basically gives an idea that this is something that no one really wants to do but something that just has to be gotten over with so they can go back out and play football, I am concerned we are squashing interest and failing to create the interest and self motivation in learning and the practical application of things being taught as well as the value of knowing truth and knowledge about he universe and how things work.

Of course it is important to motivate students to do well in all subjects and to set some goals and standards. But, maybe they should not be the hard standards of perfect success or complete failure that hard standards can create. Students are different, each person is different and may have a weakness and a strength. IT is differences, not conformity that make us strong, one person may be a literary genius, another person may be a math genius. With a conformacy system i fear we destroy literary talent for instance because those people are not perfect at math, for instance. People often find specialisations at life and these specialisations allow for an advanced society.

I do not believe in a private school idea but I think we need more diverse public schools. Charter schools may not be so bad if they are run as a non profit and accessible to everyone. It may be that some students may do better in smaller schools and it may give more choices on different kinds of learning environment. I think as well charter school teachers should be a part of unions. I dont see a problem with public funded schools which are open to all students, regardless of their income, of different sizes and formats. I do see problems with private schools which creates a seperate school system for the elites.

The NEA and the AFT teachers could start an impeachment petition. That would be meaningful.

No society that neglects the education of its young on an equal basis will survive.
We will not.
Obama is not a Democrat no more than George Bush Jr. was a true Republican.
Both were "neo-whatever."
Obama fits the neo-liberal role perfectly just like his predecessor, Clinton.
All of our tax monies and public resources must be re-aligned; until then we are lost.
What is the "unemployment" rate of the MIC??????

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I must say, to clarify what i said earlier, I do believe that public schools should be better funded and that we should try to reduce class size where possible. One of the area public schools have gone wrong is the obsession with massive megaschools. Id like to see more small 50-100 student schools which provide a much less intimidating environment for students, and for smaller schools, even 20 student schools, to be created by groups of students, however which would be staffed by trained teachers paid by the school district. The idea of smaller schools with less of the prison atmosphere of and distractions of large schools such as behaviour problems does not mean we need to get rid of publicly funded teachers and democratic schools, or layoff public school teachers, they would simply be moved into smaller "student initiative" schools where they are formed. Ive seen many schools formed for instance for gay students. An example of the hostile environment of large schools that many unwittingly defend is the fact that gay students are often not safe in these schools, ive seen situations where many gay students had no choice than to go to a small private school formed by their parents. Id like to see this simply publicly funded and licenced teachers provided for these group schools.

I think overtesting again can lead to burn out, and teaches rote memorisation, and basically creates an atmosphere that may squash student interest by turning learning into drudgery. Testing is fine as an indicator of progress, there it is a good thing to show where a student is and needs to improve. But I think it has been far too much now tied into total failure for students, especially those with learning disabilities. In many cases, students have trouble with rote memorisation, which is different from learning. Many times ive seen people excel, who were failing, by using my methods of having open book tests, it creates an emphasis on understanding and takes a lot of the fear out of it The fact is an open book test does not allow the student to ignore material, or not study but simply can refresh memory. Many burnout issues come with memory problems, not actual learning itself.

The old closed book from memory pass/fail system in my opinion needs to be replaced with more open book testing and viewing testing as a progress indicator rather than a life or death determinator that can destroy a persons life.

obama is a bush/cia plant!