Education Under the Democratic/Republican Uni-Party

There is a bipartisan tradition to appoint to the post of Secretary of Education someone who has no experience teaching beyond a few college courses and believes the best way to improve education is to cut funding and get tough on teachers and their unions. Obama has not only continued this tradition, by appointing Duncan as Secretary of Education he has appointed the most hostile person to public education in the history of the office.

The only public comment Obama has made on education (not counting generalities and sound-bites) praised a principal for firing teachers in mass and suggests teacher unions are the sole cause of all of our educational problems and charter schools the sole solution. If we are serious about addressing declining educational standards then those with no educational experience or background have to stop blaming, micromanaging, and underfunding teachers. We cannot "win the future" by underfunding and disrespecting teachers.

Particularly troublesome are declining educational trends, especially in comparison to other countries. As We Don’t Need No Education shows, unlike most other countries we are not increasing the educational level of our young. The below references indicate declining education is a nation wide problem and the policies of the Democratic/Republican Uni-Party are only making it worse. Turning our back on the public school system and making a higher education increasingly unaffordable are sure ways to pave the way for long term decline.

References
1-Why President Obama Must Remove Arne Duncan As Secretary of Education
2-The Obama Paradox
3-Archery in the Dark
4-"Teachers Letters to Obama" on Facebook here.
5-Comcast Gives Obama & $500,000 Charter Schools Shill Sharpton a Permanent MSNBC Gig
6-Teacher Pay: U.S. Ranks 22nd Out Of 27 Countries
7-The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries
8-"Poverty Is the Problem" With our Public Schools, Not Teachers' Unions
9-You Made a Difference
10-Joel Klein Refuses To Say If There Is A Firewall Between Fox News And News Corp’s New K-12 Education Business
11-When Reforming Education Means Destroying Communities
12-The Attack on Public Education
13-Why the United States is Destroying its Education System
14-Amid ‘Turnaround Agenda,’ Teachers, Communities Overshadowed by Corporate Reforms
15-Teacher Salaries and the Medieval Bloodletting of the Public Schools
16-Chester Upland: State Special-ed Formula Drains Millions from District
17-Black Teachers Fired En Masse
18-Rick Santorum's 'Snob' Lob Against Obama Brings GOP Governors To President's Defense
19-VIDEO: Stop Destroying Public Education! Lawyer & CTC Fired Whistleblower Carroll Speaks Out
20-OccupyAustin Mic Checks Arne Duncan
21-Obama Applauds Mass Firing of Teachers, Just Like When He Applauded the Mass Firing of Banksters. Oh wait...
22-Anti-Teacher Union Rhetoric Is Not Supported by Test Data
23-School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President
24-Have Our Schools Become Educational Plantations?
25-We Don’t Need No Education
26-The Assault on Public Education
27-Why Isn't Closing 40 Philadelphia Public Schools National News?
28-Income Inequality & Educational ‘Performance’
29-School Closings Come To Atlanta This Week, To Your City Next Week: It's Time To Dump Arne Duncan
30-Chicago Teachers Gear Up for a Fight
31-The Continued Destruction of Public Schools by Profit Seeking Charter Schools
32-Ten Years of No Child Left Behind: Disaster Capitalism in the Schools
33-The For-Profit College Racket
34-No State Initiated Charter Schools in Georgia
35-Democratic Split Over Education Reform Tested By Hollywood Movie
36-‘Won’t Back Down’: Realities the Movie Ignores
37-Teacher’s Unions in Tension With Democrats in Charlotte
38-Student Loan Debt Crisis Continues to Escalate
39-Selling the Soul of Public Education
40-Pearson 'Education' - Who Are These People?
41-Texas GOP Platform Opposes Teaching "Critical Thinking Skills" in Schools. The Stupid, IT BURNS!
42-As Paul Ryan Lines Up Behind Rahm, the Scheme to Privatize Chicago Schools Becomes Clear
43-Four Reasons Chicago's Teachers Are On Strike
44-Corporate-Led Education Reform Movement Ignores Solvable Problems to Carry Out Its Agenda
45-Charter School Bait and Switch
46-Chicago Teachers Swiftboated by For-Profit Charter School Operator
47-Stand Against Rahm!
48-The Real Problem with Rahm’s School Reforms in Chicago
49-Stubborn Facts About Obama Education Policies That No Amount of Convention Sugarcoating Can Cover Up
50-REPORT: America Is Failing To Send Students From Less Educated Households To College
51-Does It Pay to Become a Teacher?
52-The Goal for CTU is Better Schools, Not Better Pay
53-Obama’s Education Secretary Far From Neutral When It Comes to Chicago Teachers Strike
54-How Things Look to a Returning Chicago Teacher
55-Rahm: President Obama Supports Me Against Striking Teachers
56-Give TIF Money to Schools, Not Hyatt Corporate Welfare
57-The Worst Teacher In Chicago
58-Myths vs. Facts in the Chicago Teachers Union Strike
59-5 Biggest Lies About America's Public Schools -- Debunked
60-Number of Countries with Nominal or No Fees for Post Secondary Education
61-Charters Do Not Outperform Unionized Schools
62-The Death of the Golden Dream of Higher Education
63-On Both Sides of the Border, Teachers Fight Corporatization
64-A Short “Education Reform” Primer for the 2012 Presidential Election
65-Obama Privatizes Public Schools: Out Of The Frying Pan Into The Fire
66-Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?
67-College Students Learn of Obama's Secret Pell Grant Cuts
68-How Grossly Underfunded Are Public Schools?
69-Downward Mobility Haunts US Education
70-Disturbing Statistics for College Graduates
71-Another Loss for Tony Bennett
72-Is Education a Human Right or a Privilege for the Wealthy?
73-A Teacher in Finland Explains Why her Educational System is the Best in the World
74-The War Against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times
75-In Teaching Climate Change, Politics Trumps Science
76-Privatizing Public Schools: Big Firms Eyeing Profits From U.S. K-12 Market
77-Watchdog: CPS Too Lax on Ethics Oversight of Vendors
78-The New Tests Will Survive Even if the School Doesn't
79-Michelle Rhee to Actually be Held Accountable by Press for Once
80-Obama's Race To The Top Drives Nationwide Wave of School Closings, Teacher Firings
81-Corporate Interests Pay to Play to Shape Education Policy, Reap profits
82-Three States Pushing ALEC Bill To Require Teaching Climate Change Denial In Schools
83-UNO's Charter School Contract Pipeline
84-Melissa Harris-Perry Buries The Lead Story on National Wave of Public School Closings
85-Obama facing school “turnaround” civil rights complaints
86-Desperate US students seek “arrangements”
87-School turnarounds prompt community backlash
88-State Cuts to Higher-Ed Funding FY 08-13
89-Why judges say charters are NOT public schools— students and parents should be nervous
90-Anti-Science Bills Weighed in Four States
91-Public schools lose millions to crooks, cheaters
92-Why is former Governor Jeb Bush pushing Common Core State Standards?
93-Corporations Advise School Closings, While Private Charters Suck Public Schools Away
94-Florida House to School Districts: You Have to Give Your Unused Buildings to Charter Schools – For Free
95-Bush’s Education Foundation Contacted Other States’ Employees to Influence Louisiana School Board Races
96-Standardized Tests: The Good, the Bad, and the Very Ugly
97-Violence Against Teachers – An Overlooked Crisis?
98-Chase Madar: Handcuffing Seven-Year-Olds Won’t Make Schools Safer
99-Over Easy: Predatory Education
100-Charter Schools USA Stonewalls in Refusal to Answer Questions About Relationship With Bush Foundation
101-Chomsky: The Corporate Assault on Public Education
102-Chomsky: Corporations and the Richest Americans Viscerally Oppose Common Good
103-Fighting Creeping Creationism
104-Getting rich off of schoolchildren
105-Has another venue of education scholarship sold out?
106-Interactive Map: Voucher Schools Teaching Creationism
107-Kasich’s budget plan lowers aid to public schools, boosts privately run charter schools
108-Over Easy: Predatory Education
109-THE CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: ALLERGIC TO PARENT, STUDENT, TEACHER, UNION AND CITIZEN ACTIVISM (PART II)
110-The Country That Stopped Reading
111-Why Does the US Chamber of Commerce Want to Train or Replace Your Elected School Board, If They Haven't Already?
112-$43,056 bonus to charter teacher at ‘D’-rated school
113-Chicago announces mass closing of elementary schools
114-Chicago Public School Closings to Cost Taxpayers $1 Billion
115-Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System
116-Climate debate cut from national curriculum for children up to 14 - Exclusive: New draft guidelines for key stages 1 to 3 criticised by scientists for 'abdicating duty to future generations'
117-Conservatives Use Creationist Playbook to Attack Climate Change Education in Schools
118-Corporations Are Behind The Common Core State Standards — And That's Why They'll Never Work - Why do we keep enforcing more and more standards and testing that educators don't trust?
119-States have cut higher education funding deeply in recent years.
120-Journey for Justice: Mass School Closings and the Death of Communities
121-Parents, teachers rally for public schools
122-L.A. Teachers Block Corporate Donor Attempt to Buy School Board
123-Protest Of CPS School Closings: Arrests, Tangled Evening Commute Stem From Loop Rally
124-Race to the Top : Obama's War on Public Education 1/2
125-School Closures Pit Race And Poverty Against Budgets
126-Smart low-income kids aren’t applying to good colleges
127-With Vouchers, States Shift Aid for Schools to Families
128-Bill Gates Dances Around the Teacher Evaluation Disaster He Sponsored
129-Brown v. Board Reduced Crime: And now re-segregation is leading to a spike in violent crime among young black men.
130-Detroit Schools Emergency Manager Gets Accolades as Children Fall Further Behind
131-As Tuition Rises, Opportunities Shrink
132-The Test Score Racket
133-Student Loan Victimization
134-Interest Rates on Student Loans Set to Double Even as Students Fall Deeper Into Debt
135-The Growing Burden of College Fees
136-The road to the massive cheating scandal in Atlanta (NYT 3/30/2013) runs right through the White House.
137-Why The State Board Will Have To Revisit REPA II Teacher Licensure Rules
138-30 years after report, schools remain at risk
139-More Money for Education?
140-Union says teacher evaluation plan has race bias
141-BREAKING: Michigan Teacher’s Unions Lose in Court
142-Brooklyn Charter School Targets Rich, White Parents, Enrollment Plan Shows
143-Walmart heirs 'invest' $8 million in StudentsFirst's school privatization agenda
144-Florida schoolgirl charged with felonies for science experiment
145-Where Tuition is Free
146-Henry A. Giroux | The War Against Teachers as Public Intellectuals in Dark Times
147-Learning the Hard Way: The False Promises of Standardized Tests
148-Lincoln Park High School Students Walk Out in Support of Fired Teachers
149-Obama education secretary, Michigan governor promote school “reform”
150-Obama’s Race to the Bottom
151-Secret Teacher: are you teaching in a climate of fear? - Pressure of Ofsted inspections and a data-driven culture is destroying staff morale at Secret Teacher's school
152-Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System
153-Student Debt
154-Students fighting for their future - and ours - in Santiago, Newark, Chicago
155-School Closures Disproportionally Hurt Black and Low Income Students
156-The Chicago Public Schools & The CTU Have a lot of Questions to Answer
157-The gap between school reform rhetoric and reality in 3 cities
158-Who Is Profiting From Charters? The Big Bucks Behind Charter School Secrecy, Financial Scandal and Corruption
159-Yoo hoo to the AFT and NEA: Support the Garfield teachers, for real
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