We have a lot to learn about mayoral control from a NY teacher colleague. On Sunday, this NY teacher wrote a special story that appeared front and center in the New York Daily News titled: "Teacher Against Mayoral Control: All that power hasn't made things better." Sounds eerily familiar to what's happening right here in DC . I hate to be the one to say that NYC parents and teachers tried their darnedest to forewarn us. Here's to you for speaking out !
Teacher Against Mayoral Control: All that power hasn't made things better
By Arthur Goldstein
"As a teacher in an A-rated school, I believe mayoral control has been an absolute disaster. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Our federal and state governments have checks and balances so no one person has total control, which is a synonym for dictatorship. City kids need reasonable class sizes and decent facilities. Under Mayor Bloomberg, class sizes just took their biggest leap in 10 years.
Some people say class size doesn't matter, but even the best teachers can give more attention to 20 kids than 34. The fewer kids I have, the more individual attention each one gets.
Under this mayor, charter schools get the best of everything, including small classes and new technology.
My high school was built to hold 1,800 but enrolls 4,450 students. My kids sit in a crumbling trailer, with no technology and often no heat in the winter. So much for efficiency. The mayor says it's his way or "the bad old days." That's a false choice. We need a system that works better than what we have.
We need a chancellor who works for the kids, not the mayor. The chancellor needs to fight for what's best for kids whether or not the mayor agrees. He can't do that if the mayor can fire him for not following his orders.
A few years ago, the mayor fired two members of the Panel for Educational Policy who had the nerve to disagree with him. Consequently, the PEP is a mayoral rubber stamp. No mayoral appointee dares to stand up for kids.
This mayor boasts about accountability. Teachers are accountable. Principals are accountable, but the only time the mayor is accountable is once every four years. That's not enough, particularly for a man who is prepared to spend $100 million to buy reelection and who scoffed at the voters by changing the term limits law they twice affirmed.
Four more years of this system guarantees the privatization and destruction of public education in New York City. That's a prospect we should all oppose."
Courtesy of NY Daily News. (Posted by The Washington Teacher).
How frightening that Joel Klein and Bloomberg are both touted highly by our mayor and chancellor. Just like in NYC, in DC anything that comes out of Fenty or Rhee's office is hyped and the truth manipulated so that the claim can be made that DCPS is improving by leaps and bounds.
ReplyDeleteI wish DCPS would allow an open discussion by parents and teachers on how well the reforms are going. We need to learn what is going right and wrong to make the best decisions. Parents, students and teachers have an important voice in this process.
Hmmm - maybe the city council could sponsor a dcps "parent" day when parents can voice their opinions and concerns pro and con about school reform here in DC.
ReplyDelete