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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Education How Charter School Advocates Are Like Southern Segregationists

Posted by Goldy on Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 8:25 AM

Bill Lyne, a professor of English at Western Washington University, and the president of the United Faculty of Washington State (the union representing faculty at Washington's four regional universities), jumps into the charter school debate with "An Open Letter to Nick Hanauer."

Writing in response to the normally progressive kajillionaire's inflammatory comments accusing teachers unions of "literally strangling our public schools to death," Lyne pulls a Cienna with a devastating that's-kinda-like-this:

[Y]ou say that it’s not the hard-working, dedicated teachers who are ruining education but rather their nasty, child-hating union. I grew up as an upper middle class white boy in the American South, where all of the white grownups had their favorite Black people—the cook, the person who looked after the kids, the guy who took care of the cattle for a share of the corn crop. But God forbid that one of those favorites be seen gathering on a street corner with Black people from out of town, or at an NAACP meeting, or having coffee with a union representative. At the first hint of any organized activity, our grownups would turn on their favorite Black people faster than a summer squall could dump an inch of rain on the pasture. Suddenly the individuals who had been so tender, wise, and trustworthy were scary, too stupid to know better, and not to be let into the house. Everybody loved the solitary black person, nobody liked it when they started to bunch up and talk crazy.

That’s kind of the way it is with teachers. Everybody loves a teacher, nobody likes the big, bad teachers’ union. As long as they’re staying after school to give the extra help to the kids who need it or reaching into their own pockets to pay for the supplies that the state doesn’t anymore, teachers are saints. But when they collectively advocate for decent wages, adequate health care, and working conditions that don’t erode by the minute they’re a threat to the moral fabric of the state.

(Representative Glenn Anderson (R-Fall City) should learn a lesson from Professor Lyne on how to make a powerful allusion to racism without stupidly accusing one's opponents of being racist.)

In its entirety, Lyne's open letter amounts to a pretty thorough undressing of Hanauer and other pro-charter "business elite school reformers" who claim they do not presume to tell teachers how to teach, while doing exactly that. It's quite an education. Read the whole thing.

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/26…

Taxpayer-funded Scientology schools is already a reality in Florida.

Posted by undead ayn rand on February 28, 2012 at 8:39 AM

Mr. Lyne's comparison to racism is good. His comparison to how to turn-around a business is even better.

Posted by Charlie Mas on February 28, 2012 at 8:39 AM

An apt analogy, since charter schools are largely a throwback to the days of "separate but equal" schools, this time divided by class/income (as well as race).

Posted by cloudveil1 on February 28, 2012 at 9:09 AM

This is EXACTLY the shit my 1st grade teacher girlfriend talks about all the time. Awesome to have it laid out as succinctly and powerfully as this.

Posted by LimeLemminkäinen on February 28, 2012 at 9:24 AM

@3 I've been saying this for some time now. The push for vouchers and charter schools is really just an end around on Brown v. Board.

What these people used to say is that non-whites, with their inferiorities, ruined schools for the good little white kids. Now it is the teachers' fault for letting the non-whites ruin the schools. The only solution for them is to create schools without the underlying problem, those inferior non-white kids.

Posted by Sir Vic on February 28, 2012 at 9:36 AM

Obligatory:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Posted by Sam Levine

on February 28, 2012 at 9:44 AM

I know right! To disagree with how the union does its job is the same as disagreeing with its purpose and existence! Also, EVIL RACISM.

Posted by pablo on February 28, 2012 at 10:27 AM

"One of my best friends is..."

"Congress is a bunch of lazy, spendthrift, do-nothings..."

"I love my Congressman, and will continue voting for him..."

Why is it that government by anecdote, in which policy deliberations devolve into "I have this one constituent who wrote me a letter...", works everywhere except with teachers? In any other discussion of government, the equivalent of your kid's great 3rd grade teacher would trump all other thoughts and beliefs.

Posted by N in Seattle

on February 28, 2012 at 10:33 AM

@ 5, vouchers are for sure, but charter schools aren't - not in the wholesale way you state, anyway. They're a good alternative for poor kids who actually want to learn.

The downside to charter schools doesn't come from being "separate but equal," but in the fact that offering alternatives means that the main schools are more and more abandoned to the kids who have no alternative, because of special needs, behavior problems, parents who just don't give a fuck, and the like. Similarly, those schools are likely to cause good teachers to flee, leaving it to the ones who can't get work at "good" schools.

Posted by Matt from Denver on February 28, 2012 at 10:40 AM

@9,

Charter schools underperform public schools. So, no, they're not a good way for motivated poor kids to learn.

Posted by keshmeshi on February 28, 2012 at 11:50 AM

I'm not anti-union per se, but the union stance that any given employee is entitled to his/her job, to the point that it's virtually impossible to fire an incompetent employee (and even a CRIMINAL employee), is a problem, even more so where employee performance actually matters, like in a school.

Mark Berndt, the teacher who forced his students to eat his semen, was given a $40,000 settlement to resign from his job because the union wouldn't let the school district fire his ass.

Taxpayers are supposed to be happy about that?

Posted by keshmeshi on February 28, 2012 at 11:55 AM

Seems a bit offensive to the black experience. Teachers aren't being lynched or oppressed, they are being asked to participate in making our schools better for our kids. Some of them are doing just that, but as an organization the teachers union is obstructionist and in favor of the status quo.

You might flip the metaphor here and ask whether the established, entrenched and powerful teachers union is a bit like the racists of the old south: unwilling to change, unable to consider a different way of doing things, and reacting both violently and unreasonably to what most would consider reasonable reforms.

Posted by Mammy08 on February 28, 2012 at 11:55 AM

Since they've been rejected THREE TIMES by the Washington electorate, I'm pretty surprised this is being run up the flag pole by a supposedly deep Democratic insider money guy.

Sure, allow charter schools. But with a level playing field with public schools: they would have to take EVERYBODY, on demand, no matter how profound their disabilities, low their income, or dismal their academic performance, or insufficient their English language skills. The would have to provide a customized, documented education plan for ALL students with even the most minor issues. The would not be able to dismiss their students for truancy, infractions of rules, and even minor criminal activity. Then we'll see how all this "innovation" really performs.

Posted by Westside forever on February 28, 2012 at 11:58 AM

@ 10, you need to read the stats a bit more. Here in Colorado that isn't the truth.

I WOULD vote against them if I still lived in Washington, but not because of a misguided belief that they're about re-establishing segregation. That's something that exists in most public schools already.

Posted by Matt from Denver on February 28, 2012 at 11:59 AM

Should we keep this post in mind the next time some SPD officer "screws up" and the Guild defends him tooth and nail?

Posted by Teslick on February 28, 2012 at 1:02 PM

There's a difference between negotiating for fair wages and benefits, and extortion. Public unions are a menace by their very nature. You want my tax dollars? Earn them. From what I've seen, public school teachers aren't.

Posted by Lydia Smith on February 28, 2012 at 6:34 PM

Professor Lyne's argument is powerful. Cut the crap! All this charter school talk and "let's end last in, first out" is all about busting unions. Pure and simple. Dress it up. Put some lipstick on it. It's still a pig and stinks!

Posted by 1971 on February 28, 2012 at 7:55 PM