"Duncan praised Kline repeatedly during his visit to Minnesota, adding Kline's opposition to a third round is no reason to give up the effort." What is the effort of which Arnie Duncan is speaking? Maybe the effort is the house resolution that would freeze teacher salaries and allow the state to keep money it borrowed from schools. Perhaps it's talking about the senate bill that would freeze teachers' salaries and eliminate mandates that schools set aside money for staff development. My links are working, but try this.
This comes as Arne Duncan is calling for schools to get "teachers" from the general public. Awesome! Schools should hire people without teacher training at the same time schools start taking away staff development training. Great idea! I could rant about my feelings about Arne Duncan and President Obama's education (or lack of) policy. I will merely say is is disheartening that we do not have an "education president". Instead of ranting, I am actually taking time to contact my legislators while trying to stay informed.
Two quotes in church today led me to this decision:
"Politics is not a spectator sport. Politics is a contact sport."
"Budgets are moral documents."
This brings me to something Michelle Rhee said lately, "That's the opposite of what we do here in America. We see education as a social issue, not an economic one. And what happens to social issues in times of economic hardship? They get swept under the rug. We need to change our national conversation on education and our national culture on how we encourage kids. I think what's becoming clear with all of this, is that if
we don't start to shift our perspective, we'll never regain our position in
the global marketplace."
Although I do think that education is a social issue, it does need to be funded as if it was an economic issue. I'm sure if I spoke with Michelle Rhee we would view her words differently, but this is what I'm taking away from her quote. Public schools need to be funded. We spend too much time trying to find the answers in private schools and charter schools and non-traditional teachers. If we put money in early education and public schools, the problem would take care of itself.
This comes as Arne Duncan is calling for schools to get "teachers" from the general public. Awesome! Schools should hire people without teacher training at the same time schools start taking away staff development training. Great idea! I could rant about my feelings about Arne Duncan and President Obama's education (or lack of) policy. I will merely say is is disheartening that we do not have an "education president". Instead of ranting, I am actually taking time to contact my legislators while trying to stay informed.
Two quotes in church today led me to this decision:
"Politics is not a spectator sport. Politics is a contact sport."
"Budgets are moral documents."
This brings me to something Michelle Rhee said lately, "That's the opposite of what we do here in America. We see education as a social issue, not an economic one. And what happens to social issues in times of economic hardship? They get swept under the rug. We need to change our national conversation on education and our national culture on how we encourage kids. I think what's becoming clear with all of this, is that if
we don't start to shift our perspective, we'll never regain our position in
the global marketplace."
Although I do think that education is a social issue, it does need to be funded as if it was an economic issue. I'm sure if I spoke with Michelle Rhee we would view her words differently, but this is what I'm taking away from her quote. Public schools need to be funded. We spend too much time trying to find the answers in private schools and charter schools and non-traditional teachers. If we put money in early education and public schools, the problem would take care of itself.
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