Kathy Knechtges's Blog

Kathy Knechtges

Kathy Knechtges
Birthday
December 25
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Writer and meditator, with an Independent bent. Has written for California and Midwest publications. Interests are the loss of the middle class, American manufacturing, unions, immigration, and the welfare of families and children.

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Salon.com
JUNE 9, 2011 9:07PM

Stealth "Million-Dollar" Hammer On Michigan Teachers

Rate: 15 Flag

abc 

I'm not sure exactly how much money they spent on the constant daily slick ads that suddenly appeared on TV:

Michigan teachers could only be laid off on seniority grounds, not success in the classroom, they claimed. State kids were in great peril of getting a bad education, because the "great teachers" would all be lost! The clear implication was that most current Michigan teachers really don't care about their students, and those students must be rescued from the mostly incompetent teachers.

 

The source of these distorted ads was "Students First" a fanatical organization run by Michelle  Rhee. Rhee, the education expert, only taught school herself for three years, and was never a principal. But she was appointed as chancellor of the Washington D.C. public schools in 2007.

 Getting the local teachers to agree to one year without tenure, Rhee fired 500 aids, 241 teachers,  36 principals and closed 23 schools. She claimed an improvement in student achievement, but there has been much controversy over the accuracy of school district test scores. For example,  too many erasures were found to have been changed to the right answer on tests. When Rhee left her job in 2010, only 28% of the African Americans in the community supported her.

Rhee,  concluding publicly on talk shows that all her problems were caused by the teachers unions, has become a political darling of the conservative community.

Today the Michigan House of Representatives voted to smash teacher tenure, immediately after the fancy, expensive ad campaign, before any of the stunned targets could have time to respond. The state teacher union already supports streamlining the process to fire incompetent teachers. But this is the whole enchilada.

 Employees would not be able to negotiate on discharge, evaluation, or teaching assignments. In other words, an excellent 20-year teacher could be fired overnight by a principal who didn't like her or her politics. Or a principal who wanted to save a ton of money by hiring all new college grads. Could it be that there are other goals in mind besides saving  greatly endangered Michigan school children? Like wiping out one of the few organizations that have enough money to run political ads to counter those of the business lobbies and the wealthy and the powerful?

This direct, planned assault on unions and on the middle class can no longer be ignored. We must act now.

 

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sadly ... i believe this insanity is spreading nationally.
Chuck A. Stetson
June 10, 2011 12:15 AM
I don't understand why so many want the most inadequate, inferior people to run things. At some point people need to realize everyone will be better off if competent, intelligent leaders are in charge. There isn't much time left, competence matters most at the highest levels.

I'm in Idaho, it's proof positive that stupid people will ruin us long before the corrupt ones have a chance. God help Michigan, now the morons are ruining it too.
l'Heure Bleue
June 10, 2011 01:57 AM
A couple of decades ago I bought a lapel pin that read, "Never Underestimate the Power of Large Groups of Stupid People." What is really frightening is the dedication to stupidity that the present movement has. Ideology trumps reality. Belief trumps information. Where does the dedication to destruction of the middle class come from? How do the Free Market Republicans convince working people to do their dirty work; work that is against their own best interests?
I keep wondering when an Edward R. Murrow will step into the light.
Rodney Roe
June 10, 2011 06:59 AM
The assault on unions, as Chuck said is insanity, and it ain't going anywhere. But, I am proud to know people like YHeron right here on OS, her family and friends who are protesting and re-calling politicians who support it. Wisconsin's governor, along with many of the conservative governors who came in during the last election, will not be re-elected with along with many of the state senators doing this. Jon's post today is particularly disturbing.
scanner
June 10, 2011 07:51 AM
I think that people are just to far removed from the way that things were before unions came about. They do not have even a parent or grandparent who can talk about getting physically abused by supervisors or the endless weeks without a break or the fact that employees were so used to industrial accidents that they didn't even bear mention. Teachers are a bit different though, they didn't face the loss of life and limb but they were forced to live under the constant scrutiny of the board of education which had final say on matters like church attendance and who they could see socially and failure to comply with those arbitrary rules would lead to not just dismissal but also to blacklisting and disgrace. Rhees is a tool. The teachers didn't walk into the job with the skills of a lifetime they learned them as they went and they got that chance by being able to stay as teachers long enough to grow. If we remove tenure then we will always have unskilled teachers. The conservative plan will work fine until the current generation of teachers is gone. Then we will see them replaced by those who will work for less money with weaker skills and never try to move beyond just having a job.
bobbot
June 10, 2011 07:57 AM
I am always amazed at how socioeconomic class, the most significant determiner of school performance, is overlooked; instead, the blame is placed on teachers. Teachers are easier to blame than a structural economic problem is to overcome, I suppose, and I'd guess that most people have the false idea that teachers have a "cushy" job, what with summers off. I guess they don't know that summers are used to further their education and to read, research, and plan classes. It's an old trick: personalize a problem. That way the systemic causes of it can remain.
Jerry DeNuccio
June 10, 2011 09:07 AM
Amen to your post and to Jerry's comment. I would only add what I have written about before: teachers' unions do not grant tenure to teachers; they do not hire teachers; heck, they don't even issue certificates to teachers. School administrators, school boards, and state agencies deserve a little more scrutiny here.
Paul Fornale
June 10, 2011 12:04 PM
Thank you for your post, Kathy. I have taught for 30 years. I agree with what both of my colleagues Jerry and Paul expressed before me.

As for l'Heure Bleue's question; "I don't understand why so many want the most inadequate, inferior people to run things."

I can only say that this another example of the Peter Principle at work.
♥R
FusunA
June 10, 2011 03:12 PM
The legislature here in TN has substantially weakened the teacher tenure law, and has, for all intents and purposes, abolished collective bargaining for teachers. What we have now is something called "collaborative conferencing", which is, basically, a pile of crap.

Attempts are going to be made in every state to enact similar "reforms". It's just a matter of timing. They did it here this year because a Republican governor was elected, and Republicans got majorities in both the House and the Senate.
Jeanette DeMain
June 10, 2011 03:49 PM
No question this is all out class war. I have known too many excellent teachers who received excellent results driven out of education (despite having tenure) by principals who personally disliked them.
Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall
June 10, 2011 06:58 PM
Chuck, perhaps it will spur workers to action. Sometimes it takes a crisis.

Blue, it is very sad, this used to be a great state.

Rodney, politics has a way of destroying one's faith in one's fellow man.
Kathy Knechtges
June 10, 2011 08:27 PM
Scanner, it is super what Heidi is doing!! She and all of Wisconsin are a big inspiration!

You nailed it Bob. People have no idea what it used to be like, so much so that the ugly past is sneaking back in.
Kathy Knechtges
June 10, 2011 08:29 PM
Also, Bob, I am afraid they wil start to hire teachers from India and China and bring them here for nothing.
Kathy Knechtges
June 10, 2011 08:30 PM
Jerry, it is so true, much of the problems are poverty, family breakdown and the enviroment for the child. One can not demand that teachers perform a miracle on every neglected, damaged child.
Teachers are clearly being scapegoated, and there is a hidden agenda here. Some of the disadvantaged, even, are unfairly trying to foist all the blame on teachers.

Paul this really blew my mind. It was so manipulative.
Kathy Knechtges
June 10, 2011 10:04 PM
Fusun, I may sound a little obsessed, but we are really at a crisis point, and we must act

Jeannette, my condolences on your new law

Stuart, this is the pits.
Kathy Knechtges
June 10, 2011 10:07 PM
Kathy, I agree with you, but what else can we do? We voted in such a way to preserve what we believed in. It seems like no matter what, money talks. In the long run, I wonder if our votes count for anything?
I Love Life
June 13, 2011 01:03 AM
OMG this is not a pleasant situation for teachers ...They deserve better better..but how?
Algis Kemezys
June 14, 2011 09:29 AM
Looks like the Koch brothers have gotten more clever lately. r
old new lefty
June 15, 2011 06:31 PM
In Philadelphia they tried hiring a company to write scripts and have them read by non-teachers at some of the schools -- as if all there was to teaching was delivering canned lectures. The students didn't do well and that program was abandoned. Nobody wants to hire a car mechanic who has no experience, but owns a manual. Why would anybody imagine that teaching is a simple mechanical process?
geezerchick
June 28, 2011 12:53 PM