Tisch's "listening" is too little and way too late. She has been dismissive of every concern raised by parents since the first education forums, scheduled and then cancelled, in the Fall of 2013. EngageNY is poorly designed, canned curriculum that students can access so that they can do the bare minimum required. Tisch claims the Regents and NYSED have not done a good enough job explaining the testing, and cannot even agree with herself as to what the tests are supposed to ascertain.
In the October regents meeting, she dismissed parental concerns about the removal of the RCT option for the local diploma by waving off that the IEP diploma "wasn't anything anyway" when that is not the issue that parents have been presenting.
She proposed giving a waiver for Cuomo's teacher evaluation plan to the highest performing (which means wealthiest) school districts but leaving the middle class and poorest districts to come up with yet another APPR plan and the funding to implement it.
New York parents are tired of the lies out of NYSED, tired of the "let them eat cake" attitude of the Regents under Tisch's misguided leadership and tired of our education system being sold to Pearson and their poorly designed, gag ordered, unfair and wasteful tests.
And:
NY State's system of public education is badly broken and the fiasco lies on the shoulders of Tisch/King/Cuomo. When have two less experienced (and less competent) individuals as Merryl Tisch and John King been placed in charge of a $60M. enterprise? Why would someone like Tisch who has taught a few years in a non-public be elevated to Chancellor? How could King, who had run a 215 student Charter be placed in charge of a huge, diverse educational system without any background? Is anyone surpised at the fiasco that has ensued? Does anyone care that Tisch plays a role in hiring our third consecutive lightweight Commissioner? Tisch needs to go right now--to clear the pathway for attracting a worthy person to the role of Commissioner. I can promise you that if they hire another lightweight parents and educators will be marching on Albany with pitchforks in hand! The Tisch/Cuomo nonsense needs to end now--that is what parents were saying when they opted their children out this past month!
Tisch is flailing to save herself and her precious education reform agenda.
But the misdirections she's throwing out there - the "Let's exempt 10% of the districts from evals" or "How about a 10 month delay on the evaluation system?" - are fooling few.
Delaying the reforms doesn't change anything other than the timetable.
Merryl Tisch must go and she must take her reform agenda with her.
If Albany pols don't agree, then they must pay a political price for their support of Tisch and her agenda.
That's where we're at now and nothing Merryl Tisch does or says anymore can change that.
The parent Coalition has asked for her resignation for starters. But they stated that they will have a more detailed list of demands shortly. I hope one of them includes removing ALL billionaires from getting involved with Public Education. They're just trying to get rid of our middle class jobs, end public schooling, and grab the tax dollars. Push us down into the dirt with no job except for the crumbs they will throw at us. After that they will only educate the rich kids while they leave the masses poorly educated. Nice plan right? Except people have woken up. If they show these billionaires any mercy... It's time to throw the rule book at them. Full force. And yes, if need be I will be the first in line with my pitchfork.
ReplyDeleteHooray! I do think that people are waking up. The working people of this country are being taken for a big fat ride. Only we're the ones pulling the wagon.
ReplyDeletePitchforks!
It's time. Baltimore, Ferguson, Obamacare, TPP, Citigroup, Atlanta teachers, how many lies do we need?
Pitchforks!