In the Name of Transparency, Obama Team Posts Memos from Outside Groups

“On the whole, nothing earth-shattering but certain a departure from previous administrations.”
This is part of the reason I voted for Obama.
I don’t expect him to reinvent government but to change the course we have been on in terms of government secrecy.

I imagine the NEA isn’t too pleased with the continuation and the support shown towards the No Child Left Behind Act. Contrary to PR, it hasn’t been that successful and has serious flaws, both in its assumptions and its enactment.

Under the Bushies, La Raza and teachers have been demonized. I’m both and I’m as American as they come. Obama has nothing to be ashamed of here. The shame lies with those among us who hate and divide. 8 years of Bushism is enough. I can hardly wait until Dubya’s last day in office to return to a fresh, clean and decent America.

Yeah- they need to keep themselves busy on the change gov website looking for conspiracies while we dominate the blogs. Great idea, Tungsten!

With Kennedy, the NCLB was supposed to even out the learning between white and non white, the rich and the poor. Under the Bush administration, the legislation became a method that on the basis of monetary incentive for teachers and funding for schools actually strengthened differences between the advantaged and disadvantaged. The schools which needed the funding and the accolades the least were the ones who were rewarded, while the struggling schools were further stigmatized and put in danger of loosing funds. There were across the board percentages of students who must pass, regardless of the schools’ and student body makeup. In the meantime, the Bush administration pushed for vouchers for private schools as the struggling schools worsened. I know that in some districts, schools which were special education hub schools disbanded their programs and their students were dispersed into the district so their test scores wouldn’t pull down their scores. In short, what started out as a noble idea by Kennedy deteriorated quickly into a ruthless struggle for schools to survive- ironically, the ones the bill was designed to help in the first place.
Smith, if you’re concerned about the NEA being more concerned about their dues than students and education, then you should by all means take a read of the memo yourself.

Most of these Education Programs are just another loop hole for local politicians to cheat the taxpayer. The No Kid program is another example.The schools and teachers are moving “Special Ed” kids out and crash tutoring and proctoring the kids, that they can’t, to pass their competency to graduate exams. If someone tells me that the schools are substituting students for the tests, I’ll believe it. Not because I’m ignorant, but because that is the way it works. Get the government money at all costs. Twenty years ago, they just passed the kids on. Now they phony up the test results. The result is the same and everyone can see it. More graduations, less drop-outs, but the kids are no smarter.

Okay, I read the NEA memo and if the order in which they presented their requests is also what they consider to be highest priorities, it looks like creating new government positions for themselves is the most pressing problem we face today, followed closely by the fact that our schools aren’t environmentally friendly enough and then that emphasizing basic skills is a problem. We need to get more global people. Math is only worthy when taught in tandem with How Crystals Make our Chakras align.
Okay, so I made that last part up, but seriously, making sure that employees are allowed to force unions via the Employee Freedom of Choice Act and insisting our schools be bilingual? As a parent, these are hardly the things at the top of my list of wants for my child.

Much ado about nothing. If you believe Obama’s adminsitartion will be “transparent,” you believe only those people earning $250,000 or more will suffer during the next four years.

Jen- That’s an interesting interpretation. I don’t understand your concern about the NEA wanting the government to create positions for them. There was a lot of bureaucracy to wade through, but no mention of the government funding positions for the National Education Association. There were concerns expressed about NCLB that weren’t too different from my own. Teaching math with crystals has nothing to do with the 21st Century Skills portion of the document which emphasizes that US education become economically competitive. Most of the emphasis was on core areas like math, reading, and science with a multidisciplinary approach. Again, teaching math with crystals isn’t an accurate way to describe combining the math and science disciplines, which in reality, are very complimentary to one another.