THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY

The resignations letters are flying like confetti downtown. Anyone paying attention could have predicted this, up until this very moment. We have watched for years the tell-tale signs of "the going through of motions". No one seems too clear of this thing called education. The district appears always reactive, rushed, unprepared and in the dark. Yet, any educated brain knows this simply cannot be true, they in fact are organized, plotting and planning 7 years ahead of time (just a wild guess). Has to be. Doesn't make any sense for the system to operate so backwards...

Making money makes a lot of sense however. Profiteering from various phases of failure has become protocol, or so it seems. Someone makes $50k here, another makes some more money over there, or someone gets hired at a nice fat salary double a teacher's. That's the way it goes, right? Something's not right with that practice. Could it be possible it is an accident? Could those at the top be that inept? One group not profiteering is teachers. We are too busy ducking and weaving to avoid bombs of blame lobbed at us. This is just Buffalo, there is nothing special about it. It's in the Playbook. The only thing special here is that we allowed the heist to go on and on. What is special is why a contract extension was granted only a short year ago, and suddenly the system is failing so bad the state may takeover! Chaos has been created to distract and open back doors to change governance while no one's looking. This change in governance is so obtrusive it's not democratic or public by nature, therefore quite frightening. What is happening on the Greatest Country on Earth? What about all those children left behind? Another layer of bureaucracy? Really? That's our answer? Best we got?

All the rhetoric is so old, it can't even be repeated. We know the answers. Where is the Teacher's Voice in reform? Why aren't we demanding the correct things be done, as a group with solidarity? Where is a voice about the conditions we work under? Silence is deafening in the national "debate" if you want to call it that...it's more like a national shame.

The schools fail for reasons. Distinct, planned and managed reasons. It's an old, old playbook. It's a worn gypsy train moving on to the next frightened, broken town in system failure. Our schools were not great before Williams or Oladele, but their arrogance squared makes it difficult to recall anything prior to their regime until now. This is the last stop. Remember, down South, they always look for the person with the white washed paint and the dead white grass in front of their barn that was white yesterday after the gypsies moved on. The sucker who fell for the sell. Who fell for it here? Who knew and feigns surprise now at system failure and our collapse of leadership? Let's look for the whitewash and some dead grass around some of these resignations. Does a resignation with pay count for or against your evaluation? If we are paying failure for another year and benefits for life, then what's the beef with teachers? Sounds like some priorities about accountability are a bit askew.