Saturday, March 10, 2012

WHERE'S CAT STEVENS?

The attendance “mess” (as The Buffalo News headlined it), has been a mess for years. Thanks to James Williams who saw fit to make attendance not even a priority by firing all the Teachers that actually have that job Title. Where was the outrage from Sam Radford’s parents then? This wave of panic reaching its crescendo has been in the works for the past 5 years. Inventing new names of High Schools, closing this one, opening it under a new State ID number, it’s all old news. It’s all part of the habitrail web trapping urban districts into the dangling carrot routine over and over again. The Failure Train…Everyone is on it.

The Buffalo News had the audacity to run "Pity the students” as a running headline in March 9, 2012. On the Opinion page, right there underneath Warren Buffett’s name.

Here’s some of the inciteful, unsourced rants and language designed to elicit derision:

“Instead, the union council of delegates jammed a thumb in the eyes of every student of the Buffalo School District.” Instead of worrying about teacher’s thumbs, why aren’t we worried about the big finger pointed at The State Leadership, local leadership and those pontificating without sources? Another favorite from the piece reads… “But it only accounts for 20%, and there is an appeal process for teachers who feel their evaluations are unfair. Where’s the threat to a capable teacher?” Last anyone checked the law in effect for Fall of 2012-2013 school year automatically changes student performance to 40% of your evaluation for any school with RTTT funding. Not to mention the great faith teacher's have in "appeals " processes when it comes to their jobs.

Finally teachers are realizing after being ambushed by the Feds what is happening albeit 5 years too late. The seeds sowed by Willliams are popping through like early bulbs on a nice sunny day in February. Hard to believe, but there they are, alive and well, shooting out with new growth. The seeds of derision when we are talking about our children. Now that’s an agenda to be proud of… We are steps away from dismantling the district, shattering it to privatize out our childrens’ futures, (willingly and in a hurry mind you)…

The best two sentences in this editorialist slander include: “(In that regard, it would be fine with us if school administrators were also subject to an evaluation system that includes the performances of absent students).” The “performances” of the “absent students” is the only part that confuses me. I also wondered who they were referring to exactly when they said "fine with us…" Finally the crux of their argument is revealed with the biased, unabashed line: “The right leadership from BTF President Phil Rumore would have made all the difference, but that’s like asking the pope to conduct a bar mitzvah.” I cringed while typing such inciteful language. Is this an Educational Crusade of the billionaire? Ramping up its efforts to divide and conquer the machine barrels through, with one agenda and it has nothing to do with those missing children….

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

incendiary editorials from the think tank at the helm of the cheap news, "they" are so transparent and pathetic.