Letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan 5/17/09
May 17, 2009
The Honorable Arne Duncan
Secretary of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW,
Washington, DC 20202
Dear Mr. Secretary:
On Election Day 2008 I was thrilled that Barack Obama had been elected, because I had volunteered in the campaign, donated my time and money (and my wife’s as well), and I knew how important it was to have him elected. In the interim, I have had been told that hope and change are on the way. But today, I am demoralized.
A few weeks ago, President Obama remarked that he didn’t make comment about the bonuses that were being paid out with stimulus money because he didn’t want to speak about that which you didn’t know. Why haven’t you or President Obama applied that same standard in your remarks about public education? Your remarks about public education demonstrate a clear ignorance about MY profession. I expected better from you and President Obama, and today, I am demoralized.
Many of the fellows of The Education and the Public Interest Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Education Policy Research Unit at Arizona State University have written President Obama, and done so far more eloquently than I can. But it is clear from the path that you are pushing public education, that this information is being ignored. The term negligence comes to mind regarding the current trend in the political push regarding public education. You, sir, as well as President Obama have a duty to the public education establishment. The push to close “low performing schools and build charters run by private corporations are more of the same wrong-headed policies that your predecessor, George W. Bush, so loved. And making student achievement synonymous with test scores will require me and my fellow teachers to continue committing acts of educational malpractice. This is negligent. Thus today, I am demoralized.
Please, Secretary Duncan, I challenge you to educate yourself about the true state of public education, not listen to those who would privatize public schools, not those who want schools run like a business, not those who want a cheap worker delivery system, not those who wish to put a large portion of the $800 billion spent on public education in their own pocket at the expense of my students. Until public education policy-makers demonstrate a true understanding that public education is the cornerstone of our democratic republic, I will be demoralized.
Sincerely,
Sean Michael Black, M. A., Ed. S.
Letter to Congresswoman Virginia Foxx 4/29/09
Dear Ms. Foxx,
It is clear from your remarks about Matthew Sheppard that you have a rather fleeting association with the truth. I live less than fifty miles south of the Wyoming/Colorado border and your disingenuous remarks about Matthew Sheppard are an abomination. If your remarks about Matthew Sheppard are representative of how you represent the facts on an issue, you, ma'am, have NO business representing anyone in Congress. I realize that you represent people far away from my home in Greeley , Colorado , but to suggest that Matthew Sheppard was a criminal shows no regard for truth. You have my earned my disgust and contempt. In the future, would you please not sully the floor of the Congress with such blatant lies and disinformation as you did today when speaking about Matthew Sheppard? If you are not ashamed, then you have no conscience.
Sincerely,
Sean Michael Black
About Public Education
A few observations . . . First, a union exists because a group of workers choose to bargain together and the union's first responsibility is its members. Thus, a teacher's union does not exist for the transient population that is made up of students, but rather the permanent population of professional teachers. The union protects teachers so that the individual teacher can get to the work of providing students opportunities to learn.
Second, teachers don't really teach as much as they provide an opportunity to learn. Education is a participation sport (so to speak) and requires the active effort on the part of the student. Measuring teachers by standardized tests is ridiculous because ETS can predict with over 80% accuracy standardized test scores by considering the following: 1) single-parent status; 2) free and reduced lunch status; 3) attendance; 4) how much TV is watched; and 5) how much children five and under are read aloud to at home. Teachers have nothing to do with any of these.
Third, public education is the best thing ever invented in this country. It is wildly successful in so many ways, but the left bashes education to get more funding, and the right bashes education to push vouchers and charters. But the truth is this country should stop trying to educate everyone on the cheap and turn public schools into the palaces they ought to be.
Fourth, so many posts suggest that schools are in the "business" of creating a product called students. Schools aren't a business. They don't produce a product. If schools are going to be judged solely on the "product" called students, then give public schools the opportunity to reject the inferior raw material just manufacturers in the private sector do. Just a coincidence how charters manage to keep their students until October 1.
Finally, I don't think there is enough information in any of the articles to determine whether or not the "sickout" is the correct action or not. Push anyone into a corner, and the results usually aren't pretty.
