NY Times article on how the House Republicans
will NOT pass the Obama/Duncan blueprint for NCLB reauthorization,
will NOT authorize any more money for Race to the Top,
but WILL scale back federal intrusion into how states run education policy
and WILL hold hearings into how Arne decided to dole out the Race to the Top funds.
Gosh, I love divided government.
I wish we'd had divided government back in 2009.
Maybe the shit Obama pushed through or promoted - Race to the Top, i3, Common Core - wouldn't have gotten through.
Oh, well.
At least we have divided government now and some Tea Partiers and other Repubs in Congress who are opposed to NCLB, RttT and the rest of the garbage promoted by Obama, Duncan, George Miller and Lamar Alexander.
Hopefully there will be enough Dems opposed to the Obama/Duncan agenda as well so that NOTHING gets done these next two years except for ending AYP.
We'll see.
One last thing - remember how Obama ran against standardized testing in 2008?
In his blueprint, he plans on adding standardized tests in every subject at every level in order to evaluate teachers and schools.
Just one more piece of bullshit from the Change We Can Believe In Express.
I can't wait until both Obama and Duncan are ridden out of D.C. in disgrace.
Given the way Obama has lost the left, lost the middle and continues to be despised by the right, I think that just might happen.
Unless Jonathan Alter, David Brooks and David Broder ride to his rescue, of course.
Obama has from the start been the candidate of diversion. In 2008, the "Executive Committee of the Ruling Class" clearly saw the public's exhaustion with Bush, knew that their debt securitization scam had run its course,needed someone to harmlessly divert the popular energies that were fermenting, and to set the stage for further looting (since productive investment in the US is no longer even considered by these people; they've decoupled their interests from those of the nation)of public resources (schools, Social Security, etc.).
ReplyDeleteObama got the nod, and he's fulfilling his appointed role as the neo-liberal corporatist who siphons political energy from the "Left, " whatever that is. He also provided the added benefit of having a Black man be the initial face of austerity, a neat trick.
But what no one counted on was the rise of the libertarian Right, which has injected uncertainty into things. On NCLB, they may buy us some time on an "enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend" basis, but don't fool yourself: they'll be coming after us, too.
I agree the libertarian right will eventually be coming for us - but in this next NCLB reauthorization try, Obama and the corporate Dems/Repubs will will be coming for us. So they are the more immediate danger, I think, especially if Obama gets his way on Title 1 and teacher pay/evals in the NCLB law.
ReplyDeleteYeah, agree totally with M.K...Obama is a puppet of the ruling elite as evidenced in sooooo many ways. The appointments of Rubin and Summers, the actual culprits who pushed through the repeal of Glass Steagal, the big change that has allowed the full scale looting of the financial system as we knew it. Also, the complete current sacking of the once public education system, which will once again benefit the interests of a very small number of billionaires, with riches taken directly from the public trough...and on and on...The last I checked we're still fighting really FOUR hot wars that we know of when you include Yemen and Pakistan....and so much more. And why isn't "The Press" constantly breaking HIS balls about the wars like they broke Bush's? Have we seen images of any of the coffins coming back to Langley? Naaah....just goes to show you how unfree and controlled "The Press" is here....it's a joke.
ReplyDeleteObama is also "riot insurance" in case the dollar loses its reserve currency status worldwide. It's already happenning, but if it happens quickly, say..as quickly as the time it takes for two towers to "implode"...then ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE IN URBAN CENTERS...with massive inflation...All you'll see is the image of Obama pleading with the masses NOT to rob their next door neighbors for their daily bread. If you don't think things are that shakey....think again...Bernake coming out and saying that employment won't be normal for "4 or 5 years" is akin to him saying that "we don't know when the fuck it'll ever get baack to normal" AND "shmucks...you're on your own." Russia and China agreeing to begin trade between them NOT in dollars....and other real moves around the world that is slowly or quickly removing the dollar as the reserve currency...When a building collapses, the process started a long time before it "implodes"...