By Bill Ayers
Truthout | News Analysis- Sunday, 29 June 2014
Analogy Test:
High-stakes, standardized testing is to learning as:
a). memorizing a flight manual is to flying
b). watching Hawaii Five-O is to doing detective work
c). exchanging marriage vows is to a successful marriage
d). reading Grey's Anatomy is to practicing surgery
e). singing the national anthem is to good citizenship
f). all of the above
Answer: F
On June 10, 2014, Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court
ruled that current teacher tenure laws deprive students of their right
to an education under California's constitution.Vergara v. California
was cast as a group of poor kids suing the state to get rid of bad
teachers under the banner of an advocacy group called Students Matter, a
nonprofit founded by Silicon Valley billionaire David Welch in order to
employ the most aggressive hired guns from the white shoes law firms
and bankroll this multimillion-dollar lawsuit.
Vergara was immediately hailed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as
an opportunity and "a mandate to fix these problems." Give Arne Duncan
credit for consistency: he called Hurricane Katrina "the best thing that
happened to the education system in New Orleans" because it swept the
slate clean and folks could just start over (never mind those black
bodies piled in the corner), and in 2010 he applauded the school board
in Central Falls, Rhode Island, the most densely populated and one of
the poorest cities in the state, for firing everyteacher, guidance
counselor and the principal at the high school because of "poor
performance." "This is hard work and these are tough decisions," Duncan
said at the time. "But students only have one chance for an education,
and when schools continue to struggle we have a collective obligation to
take action."
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