58 Comments - The Captain - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:04 pm: Rauner: teachers make too much money, we should take away their collective bargaining rights. Rauner: we need to recruit better teachers. I think he needs to give this a little more thought, it’s not soup yet. - Carhartt Representative - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:05 pm: DeVos is one of Trump’s appointments that is against the thing she’s supposed to regulate. It’s like putting Charlie Sheen in charge of Narcotics Anonymous. I can’t see it possibly going well. - City Zen - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:08 pm: But the IFT’s parent sure loved them some Arne Duncan: http://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-statement-arne-duncans-senate-approval-be-secretary-education - illini97 - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:09 pm: I thought the Governor was focused on the budget? He said he doesn’t have time for Party issues and the like. - illini97 - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:11 pm: – The Captain – C’mon. You know this is a dog whistle. “Publish the IQ scores of the staff and let parents discuss” leads to “You know who has smart teachers is that private school over there.” - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:12 pm: I’m not sure if Ms. Bowen knows this but there’s a large contingent of the Republican Party - especially amongst the conservative base - that wants to abolish the Department of Education. Hyperbole doesn’t help, either, and just because Governor Rauner uses it doesn’t mean all of his opponents or people who dislike his policies need to use it. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:18 pm: ===…when the governor’s actual education policy reform agenda may emerge. He’s talked a lot about funding, but hasn’t really tackled substantive issues as of yet.=== Great point, Rich. I’d like to know how any governor, including Governor Bruce Rauner, makes the case the Legislative branch should craft a budget for agencies and policy, and by doing so, how does that governor, any governor, Governor Bruce Rauner, weigh and measure their education policy by the monetary measures when that governor requires the Legislative branch to do the job the Executive is prescribed to do in Article VII, Section 2, (a)? Rauner wants to insert himself into policy, opening the door to Rich’s thought, and I try to see how our Governor can answer that thought without budgetarily support that policy and allow the Legislative branch do that weighing and measuring of that policy within the budgetary measure… of dollars. If you are the belief it doesn’t matter that (a) is before (b) in budgeting, how can you look at policy that is driven by budgetary measures and a governor refuses to show the monetary commitment of education or any policy the Executive can drive by its station and duties described constitutionally? Understand. Had Rauner gotten a clean FY2015 Fix, and FY2016 and FY2017 budgets passed, what would be my beef? Governing. That’s the ball game. This Education policy question Rich ponders hoes to the heart of where Rauner is refusing to be… our Governor. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:19 pm: Carhartt - see my post. Perhaps that is the point. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:20 pm: Dumb phone Article VIII - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:22 pm: ===But the IFT’s parent sure loved them some Arne Duncan:=== - City Zen - So did Bruce and Diana Rauner, and their denied Winnetka-living daughter when it came to Payton Prep… - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:26 pm: With a few exceptions, since WWII most cabinet secretaries have been figureheads, chosen to achieve a political/race/gender balance. Policy is centralized and driven by the large White House bureaucracy. The tricky one is AG, and, for that matter, the dozens of appointed U.S. Attorneys. The White House doesn’t want to be seen as getting involved in prosecutions. See Nixon/Mitchell, W/Rove/Gonzalez. - Anonymiss - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:29 pm: Rauner has described DeVos (a donor) as an “inspired choice” and “very passionate education advocate.” Except check out what folks had to say who knew her in Detroit, where she destroyed the public schools in order to expand unregulated charters. https://capitolfax.com/2016/12/09/rauner-loves-him-some-devos/ - A guy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:40 pm: ===* The IFT is not amused…=== They never are. Especially when the subject of accountability comes up. Would be nice to have an Illinois Federation of School Children. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:45 pm: Our education system needs more accountability. Most teachers do wonderful jobs every day. But the fact remains that there are too many schools that aren’t meeting the standards and are failing too many kids. I wouldn’t go as far as making teachers take the ACT but we have to hold schools accountable for results. Charter schools and choice have to be part of the mix. - Anon221 - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:46 pm: Guam and the Northern Marianas??? The Guam Department of Education is a single unified school district consisting of grades Kindergarten through 12th Grade. Our 26 elementary schools, eight middle schools, six high schools and alternative school serve over 30,000 students. (https://sites.google.com/a/gdoe.net/gdoe/) The CNMI Public School System consists of twenty (20) school campuses: twelve (12) elementary schools; four (4) junior high schools and five (5) high schools. (http://www.cnmipss.org/about-cnmi-pss/) Not disparaging, just wondering to the angle on their signing on. - JS Mill - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:46 pm: I wonder how BVR would fair on the ACT today? Or the SAT for that matter. Probably not very well. Although, giving it more thought, since he isn’t governing maybe he is spending the time working on trigonometry and English conventions. Then again, if his downstate event diction is any indication, he will not do well on the English section either. The point- what an incredibly silly, pandering things to say. Anyone that understand these assessments knows that practice has a great deal to do with the success. If you haven’t been studying many of the components of the assessment you probably won’t do well even if you are an intelligent person. They are not IQ tests. He clearly demonstrates and absolute lack of respect for educators. His support for De Vos only goes to provide further evidence. - City Zen - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 1:46 pm: ===* The IFT is not amused…=== ==They never are. Especially when the subject of accountability comes up.== So true. Remember Steve Preckwinkle, the IFT lobbyist, who subbed for one day as a teacher and got a teacher pension? - Ares - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:08 pm: Guam? The Mariana Islands? Paul LePage (ME)? Sam Brownback (KS)? “Alabama” Scott Walker (WI)? Chris “Bridgegate” Christie (OH)? This is the best that billionaires can do? Tell me when to be impressed with this “mandate”, ok? - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:17 pm: What kind of ACT scores was he expecting to find? Does he not know what the admission, graduation, and licensure requirements are in Illinois and how anyone getting less than an 18 or 19 on the ACT would likely never make it through all the hoops to become a licensed teacher? In most colleges, admission to the college comes first and only after a student proves capable through their gpa and passing more tests can they even start taking classes leading to licensure. Then they take another test upon graduation. I wish our Governor had to take one test to get his gig, let alone three on top of all the classes. - Jc19pd2 - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:24 pm: Most of these governors have their hands in the Koch brother’s pockets, or are part of the billionaire network itself. - Albany Park Patriot - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:27 pm: Because rich people just have poor kids at heart. That’s why they got rich-to help the poor. What a farce. - Amalia - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:30 pm: and she’s anti LGBT in practices. never mind the family is profiled in the book Dark Money so she’s in the Koch realm. she is a horrible appointment in every way, and signing a support letter for her should come back to haunt Gov. Thurston Howell - OneMan - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:37 pm: So if you don’t send you kids to public school that is a disqualifying action for being education secretary? - Mama - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:40 pm: What about Special Ed.? Private schools do not take students in Special Education because they want to keep their test scores high. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:40 pm: ==DeVos is one of Trump’s appointments that is against the thing she’s supposed to regulate. == Exactly. This is an old Republican trick to delegitimize government. Read Thomas Frank’s “The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Ruined Government, Enriched Themselves, and Beggared the Nation.” - sparky791 - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:41 pm: ===* The IFT is not amused…=== ==They never are. Especially when the subject of accountability comes up.== ==So true. Remember Steve Preckwinkle, the IFT lobbyist, who subbed for one day as a teacher and got a teacher pension?== Those stinking public school teachers. All they care about is the money and pensions. Devos, the Koch brothers and all the other billionaires are going to fix it for us. They are in it only for the schoolchildren. God bless them all. - jerry 101 - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 2:46 pm: Amway, dude. Amway. - Graduated College Student - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:03 pm: ===So if you don’t send you kids to public school that is a disqualifying action for being education secretary?=== I think the disqualifying thing is that she basically questions the entire point of public education. We could also point to the whole “thinks child labor got a bad rap” bit as another disqualifying factor. - thunderspirit - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:03 pm: == So if you don’t send you kids to public school that is a disqualifying action for being education secretary? == No. But wanting to dismantle the very agency you’ve been nominated to head might be reason for concern. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:14 pm: ==They never are. Especially when the subject of accountability comes up.== Yes…my wife works about 80 hours a week teaching public school first graders and preparing to teach first graders. She spends her free time researching best-practices and devising ways to meet the needs of the students in her room. She communicates with parents regularly, and spends weekends and summers getting ready for “the next lesson” or the “next unit”. There are millions like her - they just lack accountability. - Team Sleep - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:14 pm: Tiny Dancer - that books sounds like it is written from a middle-of-the-road, fair perspective. My guess is that he also hawked in such non-partisan shows like The Rachel Maddow Show. No wonder our political discourse is so awful. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:20 pm: Mama ===What about Special Ed.? Private schools do not take students in Special Education because they want to keep their test scores high.=== The private schools I have been associated with tend do not to serve large numbers of special ed students because they are not equipped (funded) to do so, not because they are afraid of test scores. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:24 pm: Team Sleep - Did you read the book? He also wrote, “Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the Party of the People?” which correctly spanked the Ds. - Sue - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:46 pm: Teacher Unions are in business to protect teachers not to improve education. Anyone remdmdmber Michelle Rea who vastly improved public education in DC but was not popular with the AFT who savaged her. Obama’ slowest moment IMO was allowing the Union to insist on her termination and the president looked the other way to the detriment of D.C. African American students. - DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 3:48 pm: Where is the PS in the email. You know get my kid into Walter Payton Prep because you know I live in Chicago even tho I vote elsewhere. Darn voter fraud - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:17 pm: Rauner’s argument is that bad teacher make too much money. Teachers are paid based on years of service and degrees earned- steps and lanes. Nowhere is performance in their which is fought by the unions tooth and nail - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:20 pm: –Nowhere is performance in their which is fought by the unions tooth and nail– Is there a particular “bad teacher” to blame for that mess? Or is that on you? - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:25 pm: World salad wordslinger. Go ahead and make the case that all teachers with the same levels of education and years of service should make the same money, and there should be no accountability for the kids not learning and that bad teachers can’t be fired. That is the union’s position - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:33 pm: –World salad wordslinger.– Sigh. Dude. “World salad?” On top of “Nowhere is performance in their which is fought by the unions tooth and nail?” If you’re going to go off on “bad teachers,” make an effort to be coherent. Goes to credibility. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:34 pm: ===Goes to credibility=== Agreed. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:35 pm: Ha ha I get it out correct typos are to be blamed on a “bad teacher” Witty! - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:38 pm: Alright then there is no credibility for demanding teachers actually are competent and we can just continue with a failing school system because changing anything would upset unions. - Seymourkid - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:40 pm: Lucky Pierre, teacher pay and tenure are now affected by test scores. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:40 pm: ===…no credibility for demanding teachers actually are competent and we can just continue with a failing school system because changing anything would upset unions=== Not one person said that. Do you also lack the capability to argue like an adult? - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:47 pm: –Ha ha I get it out correct typos are to be blamed on a “bad teacher”– You’re either not trying, or could use a nap. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:47 pm: Thats exactly what the Chicago teachers union position is OW. Pay for seniority and education, not performance. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-02-20/opinion/ct-edit-cps-20120220_1_tenured-laid-off-teachers-chicago-teachers-union http://www.nctq.org/districtPolicy/contractDatabase/districtReport.do?id=4 - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 4:53 pm: - Lucky Pierre - Reading is fundamental. ===Not one person said that.=== … in comments here. Your speaking in absolutes gets you in just as much “trouble” as your talking points, as much as your ignoring continued reminders of what you “learned” less than 24 hours ago. You want to make the case the Union position is “X”, ok, argue like an adult and take the Rauner performance belief and sell it, make its case. Don’t “then we all should just” and think you’re making a case. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:03 pm: Yes maybe you missed the whole point of the post OW. Trump has appointed as his education secretary a proponent of charter schools that would allow parents to choose a public school for their children other than their neighborhood school. These charges are non union and the teachers union will not allow this. She and the Governor Rauner believe the teacher’s unions have too much power over education in this country and that it is not all about the kids, it’s about union power and teacher’s pay and benefits. Simple as that. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:11 pm: ===She and the Governor Rauner believe the teacher’s unions have too much power over education in this country and that it is not all about the kids, it’s about union power and teacher’s pay and benefits.=== Rauner? What do you know? Rich openly opined about what Rauner’s actual governmental educational polices are. You cite “the Post”… from the Post, Rich Miller… ===This got me to thinking when the governor’s actual education policy reform agenda may emerge. He’s talked a lot about funding, but hasn’t really tackled substantive issues as of yet. The DeVos appointment might force the matter here, though=== So, what do you know that Rich doesn’t? - wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:15 pm: –These charges are non union and the teachers union will not allow this.– I can’t decipher what that’s supposed to mean, but a number of charter schools in Chicago and around the country are unionized. To date, you can’t take taxpayer money and refuse to comply with federal and state labor laws that allow for the formation of collective bargaining units. - Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:19 pm: Governor Rauner has a long history of trying to reform Chicago public schools OW. He has donated millions of dollars to this cause His reform proposals for K-12 are as follows invest in children, through classroom funding not bureaucracy support and reward great teachers- not the longest serving ones enhance education through school choice https://rebootillinois.com/2014/09/09/will-bruce-rauner-tackle-education-reform/24761/ - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:27 pm: ===Rauner has a long history of trying to reform Chicago public schools=== As governor? Rich Miller in the Post made clear Rauner’s governor policy has yet to evolve. This is the second time I’ve pointed this out. ===He has donated millions of dollars to this cause=== 1) Rauner has said sons of those monies have been wasted 2) Donating monies doesn’t mean the same as the state’s Executive laying out and funding actual state policy. This is comically ridiculous… ===invest in children, through classroom funding not bureaucracy support and reward great teachers- not the longest serving ones enhance education through school choice=== Where is the Rauner policy and how much will this cost in a Rauner budget to implement this glossed-over silliness not based on any policy that can implement these wants? - JS Mill - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:36 pm: I have asked nearly everyone and anyone that has indicated support for choice, and especially charter schools the same questions: If charters and private school vouchers are the way to go, why not have everyone operate under the same rules? I mean, especially if charters are the answer, why not let my district operate under those rules. Level the playing field is only fair. but nobody ever really has an answer. - Winnin' - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:52 pm: America, Trump and Rauner are enamoured with bidness-people who make billions, regardless of their methods. This, We should expect DeVos to dump on common core and embrace the new math: Ammassing billions via pyramid scheme. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 5:59 pm: DeVos confirmation hearing postponed………… She didn’t turn in her homework. - CrazyHorse - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 6:22 pm: I believe Rauner had also said somewhere that half? of CPS teachers are illiterate. It’s flat out nonsense. Anyone suggesting that an ACT score should be used as a measuring stick for anything other than college admissions really loses all credibility on whatever subject they’re discussing. First of all, although I don’t have the data in front of me, I’d be willing to bet that the bulk of the highest scorers on the ACT go into Math/Engineering, and Medicine/Science. Secondly, and most importantly, the best teachers aren’t necessarily the smartest but rather the best communicators. It doesn’t matter how good the message is if it never gets delivered. Although it’s just anecdotal, I once had a Physics professor who won a Nobel Prize in Physics. A very nice man and certainly a brilliant mind but - although he probably knew almost nothing about Quantum or Nuclear Physics, my HS Physics teacher was simply better at teaching two-dimensional particle motion and principles of friction (the basics). - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 11:15 pm: =If charters and private school vouchers are the way to go, why not have everyone operate under the same rules? = The original intention a la Al Shanker, AFT president - charter schools were supposed to incubators of innovation to experiment with new teaching methods, school organization, etc. so that the successful ideas could be implemented in the public schools. They were NOT supposed replace public schools. - TinyDancer(FKASue) - Tuesday, Jan 10, 17 @ 11:20 pm: Here’s the Al Shanker/charter school story: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/26/albert-shanker-on-charters-1988/ Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.