Arne asked a pathetic question. He got way more responses than he expected.

[madfloridian]

I bet he wishes he had phrased his words differently.

From the Washington Post:

Arne Duncan asks ‘what if?’ Here’s the response.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan tweeted this to his followers on Dec. 30:

What if every district committed both to identifying what made their 5 best schools successful & providing those opps to all their students?

— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) December 30, 2014

What followed on Twitter in reaction to that tweet was probably not what he had hoped to see. Critics sent some of their own “what if” thoughts to Duncan #whatif. Here’s a sampling:

#Whatif teachers were respected rather than disparaged by this country’s wealthy and elite — Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) December 31, 2014

#WhatIf the public realized that our @usedgov has plenty of money to properly fund schools but they choose to channel $ to corps instead? — TeacherReality (@TeacherReality) December 31, 2014

... #WhatIf Every family & student boycotted @arneduncan ‘s high-stakes testing & we moved to a well-rounded education w/ authentic assessment. — Chris Cerrone (@Stoptesting15) December 31, 2014

Here's my own #what if:

As teacher was told to start teaching where the child is and take him as far as he can go. #whatif we did that now? @arneduncan #education

And another one or two from that #whatif twitter page:

Erin Rafferty Warner ?@Teachercat2 13m13 minutes ago

#whatif all the proud "rotten apples" rose up and fired @arneduncan? @BadassTeachersA @DianeRavitch

ProgTeacherCat! and 5 others retweeted
TeacherReality ?@TeacherReality Dec 31

#WhatIf the American public finally realized that Duncan's #edreform is a complete fraud full of moving cut scores, subpar tests, curriculum
0 replies 28 retweets 13 favorites

What if Arne Duncan and President Obama read the Politico article saying the Republicans may slash the number of federally required tests.

“We are actively exploring the question of whether the federal mandate on annual tests is warranted,” one GOP aide said. The goal is to give states more flexibility in how they track student progress, report those results to the public and hold schools accountable for all kids.

A bipartisan bill gaining momentum among lawmakers would give states grants to audit their testing regimes — and weed out unnecessary exams.

“Annual statewide assessments are critical to ensuring that all students are held to the same high standards and parents, teachers and communities have the information they need about how their children are doing every year,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said when the bill was introduced. “However, in many places, the amount of testing that is redundant or simply not helpful for instruction has become a real problem.”

While Duncan supports that bill, he and President Barack Obama oppose ending the annual testing requirements in NCLB, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2002. They argue that the yearly tests are vital for assessing student progress and holding schools accountable for making sure every child advances.

What if Arne admitted that the reason for all the overtesting is his own policy.

What if we were finally honest about the harm being done to public schools by corporations determined to get richer.

[world wide wally]

1. What if they took all the money they put into testing and put it into the classroom instead?

[madfloridian]

2. Good one.

[blackspade]

65. Win.

[grahamhgreen]

67. Just tweeted that on his Twitter feed!

[hootinholler]

3. Whatif our textbooks

Were written by scientists instead of preachers?

[madfloridian]

4. Another good one.

[rhett o rick]

5. "WhatIf the President would fire your ass and get someone decent in the job."

#fireArneDuncan'sAss

[madfloridian]

6. Oh yeh!

Good one.

[daleanime]

7. What if he actually paid attention to what people told him...

instead of just following the money?

[madfloridian]

22. Wouldn't that be great?

Instead he talks only in talking points given him by his corporate supporters.

[fbc]

8. What if teachers were paid as much as cops?

[AlbertCat]

16. What if teachers were paid as much as ..... baseball players

[oberliner]

24. Who would pay that salary?

I don't see that as being feasible.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

64. given number of teachers

and average salary per teacher (2012 numbers) they were paid $209,579,100,000 (3.7 million teachers at approx $56600 per year) collectively. Major League Baseball cumulative payroll comes in at about $4,068,000,000 for about 1200 players (considering the forty man roster).

If we paid the teacher the average ballplayer salary of $3.39 million the payroll would balloon to $12,543,000,000,000... I think we could swing that.

sP

[Cerridwen]

9. What if what was relevant in the "60s" was more relevant today?

Let's fund all the schools and let the military (ICC) hold bake sales.

ICC - (Military) Industrial Congressional Complex - from Eisenhower's first draft

[lastlib]

10. And my personal favorite: What if......

schools got all the money they needed, and the Pentagon had to hold bake sales to build bombers (or new stealth fighters that don't work)??

[Enthusiast]

12. That's the best!

I hate Fascists.

[BrotherIvan]

18. +1 The best

What if we cared about educating our kids more than killing other people's kids?
What if we bailed out schools rather than banks?
What if we gave our students free higher education instead of indentured servitude?
What if we had a military the size of a European country like Denmark which is considering an answering machine instead? Think of all the nice things we could buy instead.

[cilla4progress]

38. The really big questions.

I like this.

[oberliner]

25. Money is not always the answer

There are issues with school reform that won't be fixed by just throwing money at them.

[gratuitous]

32. The military needs some reforms, too

But the only solution our elected officials seem interested in is more defense funding. I'd be willing to bet that better funding for education would solve all kinds of problems. More teachers paid more to attract good candidates, modernization of our schools, new schools built, smaller class sizes, improvements in curricula to bring back physical education, music appreciation, vocational and technical training and so forth. Why not start with that, then we can see about some of the reforms that the non-professionals are so interested in?

[oberliner]

33. Fair enough

I do think, though, that redirecting and re-priortizing the funds that are currently available to public schools would be a critical step as well. Especially with respect to this "high stakes testing" nonsense.

[Enthusiast]

11. Kicked

and recommended a whole bunch!

[bigwillq]

13. K and R

I can't stand Arne.

[chervilant]

14. knr, madfloridian!

My nephew just shared with me that his math professor (at a state university) was unable to help the entire class understand the basic concept of "u substitution." I think this is where fifty-plus years of corporate assaults on teaching has gotten us. Our children will continue to struggle with essential math and science concepts if we don't turn this around.

[AlbertCat]

15. What if....

..... kids who should have failed actually failed?


Failing used to be a great motivator.

[hunter]

47. That's not true at all.

When I was teaching I had kids who did nothing. Literally no schoolwork. They didn't care, and worse, their parents didn't care.

There were usually much bigger issues at home, often actual survival issues.

This society's dysfunction runs much, much deeper than the schools.

It was the most difficult job I've ever had, and I've had some really rough jobs.

[Ed Suspicious]

52. Failing just never really helped me understand algebra. Took algebra 100 3

times in college. never better than a C-. Finally asked for the ability to take a stats class instead. Scored an A first time through. First time in decades that I succeeded in math class. After all the algebra failure, I still never figured it out. No, I think my failure didn't serve to motivate me at all. It really just eroded my confidence. I'm not sure where you get the idea that low academic achievement is simply a product of a lack of motivation. I think that's just plain wrong in many/most cases.


https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en

This really resonated with me. She talks about teachers at one school replacing the "F" as in "failure" with not yet. She talks about rewarding process and in learning instead of evaluating results. What she said made me think back to second grade when I noticed that my math performance seemed to lag behind my classmates. I wish I would have had the idea that "I just don't get it yet" instilled in me rather than what I ended up with . . . the idea that if I failed math, I would become forever behind. the situation would continue every year to rub in the idea that I just didn't work hard enough to get it. Failure served to make me math-phobic. Is that a failure of a second grader who couldn't quite understand story problems or is that a failure of failure being an inadequate motivator? I now believe the problem was that failure is a horrible motivator. Especially repeated failure.

Have you ever failed, starcat?

[MyOwnPeace]

17. What if..........

instead of paying to rebuild half of the world that we destroyed.....

...we rebuilt our own schools?

[BrotherIvan]

19. What if Democrats supported education like they're supposed to?

What if the President picked someone qualified for cabinet posts rather than his basketball buddies and sycophants?

[oberliner]

27. Why does the President not send his children to public school?

That sends a message of sorts.

[BrotherIvan]

40. I think every parent should have the choice of sending their children to the best school

I just wish President Obama had supported education so every parent in America could do that. Do I think the President could have fixed education completely in two terms? No. Do I think he and his buddy did more harm than good? YES. This has been one of the worst administrations in terms of education that I can remember in my lifetime which includes three of the worst Republican presidents. That's abysmally bad.

[oberliner]

49. Most can't afford to do that though

I certainly understand why a parent would want to send their child to the best school possible. Unfortunately, though, our system is set up so that only fairly wealthy people have that option in many cases. Most have to settle for their local public school district.

[BrotherIvan]

62. That's the point

Your local school should be as good as any private school. The difference is usually smaller class sizes, no testing, a lot of parental involvement and much higher expectation for students. It leads to a different experience and a different outcome.

We need to make our public schools great and one of the fastest ways to do it is reducing class size. That unfortunately means more teachers and more buildings. I have taught 20-and-under and 40-and-over sized classes and the difference is night and day. In the small class sizes, the majority of the time can be spent teaching. In the larger classes, the majority of time and energy is spent dealing with behavior. It's the difference between teaching and being basically a prison guard keeping the inmates from killing each other.

We also have a major change in educational philosophy that took the onus off the student to achieve and put it on the teacher. We're the only country in the world that blames the teacher when students perform poorly. It's crazy and it's stupid and it will never achieve the desired outcome.

[truedelphi]

28. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

60. Which leads to: What if we voted based on what's good for our country

and not just 'supporting the team'?

Because D or no D, Obama -- and others like him -- are never going to do the right thing.

There isn't enough money in that.

[BrotherIvan]

63. Unfortunately, in 2008, people thought they were voting for a pro-education Democrat

Democrats had always, at least given lip service to education. Often it is a Democrat's job to clean up and reverse the awful programs a Republican has put into place. Clinto did it, so that was the assumption with No Child Left Behind. The teacher's union supported candidate Obama in the primaries. That is why they are feeling so mad and betrayed. They were lied to and screwed over by the basketball buddy.

Come to think of it, I remember all the "small donors" who donated to the Obama campaign to raise $1 billion dollars for his 2008 run. How did he get so much more this time and not a word about those small donors? It's funny no one talked about the mask coming off.

So the President owes those people, and those people want to privatize public education and suck it dry. He's not only not stopping them, he's helping.

[FiveGoodMen]

68. But long before 2012, we knew better

And yet there was no primary challenge.

[LWolf]

20. I hope he is buried by what ifs

every day for the new year.

[madfloridian]

21. .....

Me, too.

[Demeter]

23. Why then I'd start looking for flaming swords, Last Trumps

and other signs of the Revelation and the end of the mortal world...

[truedelphi]

26. Those are wonderful responses...

Good to know that the social media has some very wise souls out there texting and tweeting.

[madfloridian]

42. Twitter has a very very strong bunch of outspoken teachers.

And that's a good thing. Their numbers seem to be growing every time Arne opens his mouth and lets the platitudes out.

[Skrups]

29. What if...

we ended poverty, taught, and encouraged students to work for the better good rather than to work at some bullshit job that works against the common good in order to make profits for someone else.

[Euphoria]

31. +1

[Starry Messenger]

30. Shoot, I missed the fun.

Good ones!!

[FloriTexan]

34. Kick

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

35. What if schools tested for creativity rather than conformity?

[lunasun]

37. +1

[liberal_at_heart]

74. +1

[Rex]

36. What is opps?

Opportunities? Why can't he spell all the words out or just short hand the entire thing? It makes him look as if he didn't know how to spell the word correctly or meant 'oops' or sneezed while typing.

Sorry, I get hung up on stupid shit like that. Glad he got a dose of RL, I bet he believes the bullshit he helps create daily with flowcharts and think tanks.

[Egnever]

45. Twitter has a character limit

Pretty stupid thing to get hung up on. It is the nature of Twitter and has nothing to do with his ability to spell.

[Rex]

46. Well he looks like a moron that cannot spell.

Sorry I guess you will have to live with it.

[spanone]

39. k&r...

[CentralMass]

41. i hope that none of the perspective democratic Presidential candidates support or plan to continue

the current public education policies.

[whereisjustice]

43. What if Democrats in Congress and White House stopped behaving like wannabe Republicans...

and stood up for social values beyond greed and profit while differing from Republicans beyond the margins of wedge issues?

[madfloridian]

44. Best one yet.

sue cavanaugh ?@sueecavanaugh

#whatif you underestimated the power of a bunch of pissed-off teachers? @arneduncan

https://twitter.com/sueecavanaugh

[Man from Pickens]

48. What if we took education out of the federal domain entirely?

Seems the exclusive purpose of the federal Dept. of Education is to siphon education funds off to large political donors.

If you look at the DoE's own mission statement and evaluate its performance over the period of its existence, it is a complete, unmitigated failure. http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/focus/what_pg2.html

We need to reconnect government agency missions with actual benefits received by Americans. Seems many agencies are either diverted to private purposes or exist primarily to self-perpetuate, with the stated/official mission secondary at best.

[Android3.14]

50. I see the usual suspects carrying water for Republicans

The statements that madfloridian references, for the most part, do not imply opposition to Obama, but decry the usual problems of funding, lack of teacher authority to manage our own classrooms, over testing, and disrespect for teachers.

I cannot help but notice the back-handed calls in this comment section to remove federal funding education, stifle education reform, and criticize of the Obama family.

[whereisjustice]

56. lolololol! So, who appointed Arne Duncan and who has the power to fire him? Or is Obama too weak to

fire Arne Duncan?

If you want to get rid of crypto-conservative backwash, start by flushing out the White House.

[NewDeal_Dem]

57. +100

[madfloridian]

61. This will be one of Obama's biggest and saddest failures.

His policies harm children and enrich billionaires in education.

Arne is his messenger.

[Jakes Progress]

72. I see the usual cheering for whatever Obama does regardless of principle

and condemning the same things if done by a republican.

Do you support the actions of President Obama's secretary of education?

Do you believe that this administration has a good record for education?

What parts of arne's program do you find most laudable?

If arne were appointed by a republican, would you still praise his work?

Answer those and then you will be a part of the conversation about education.

[Android3.14]

73. Ah, the arrogance of the uninformed

As an animated rabbit once remarked, "You don't know me very well."

My point here, isn't whether I support anything. The point is that many of the people responding to this thread are using it as a subtle way to promote the conservative agenda of ignorance, racial discord, and divisiveness.

So, Jakes Progress, the real question is whether you support the back-handed calls in this comment section to remove federal funding education, stifle education reform, and criticize of the Obama family?

Do you?

[Jakes Progress]

75. Nice duck. The arrogance of the self-absorbed.

The point is whether you support anything. You see no calls for stopping education on my post.

I see the desire to just let arne continue his quest in your post.

Your uninformed post is just another in the line of "My hero - right or wrong" posts that pop up whenever the clay feet are pointed at. I know you well.

So do you support arne and Obama's attempts to "reform" education? That is the real question.

Do you?

[Dont call me Shirley]

51. What if textbook companies wrote curriculum that actually works!?

[CrispyQ]

53. The 'everything for profit' model & the greedheads are going to ruin the entire planet. -nt

~kick

[Jakes Progress]

54. What if we had a president who paid attention to what his appointee is doing?

God, I hope he's not paying attention. The alternative to inattention is mean and or stupid. I prefer inattention.

[Hubert Flottz]

55. What if every kid in the USA turned out to be...

as stupid and useless as George W Bush?

That and the fact that, some corporate fat cat somewhere along the line, can afford to manipulate our government, in order to make far more money than he's expended bribing a few political "TAKERS."

[sabrina 1]

58. What if Arne hadn't ended education in favor of enriching Bush's Corporate

buddies in the Testing Publishing Business?

[Octafish]

59. What if the federal government made it a priority to provide each child with a quality education?

It'd be a different nation and planet.

Instead, we've gotten more of the same old, same old:

[madfloridian]

66. You make a good point.

Actually some news sources are now pointing out that the charter schools are leading to resegregation.

BTW what was the date on that article? Interesting about Meese.

[Octafish]

70. Ca. 1987

Ex-Education Chief Tells of Slurs, Racial Jokes : Bell 'Shocked' by White House Staff Bias

WASHINGTON — President Reagan's first secretary of education says mid-level Reagan Administration officials made racist jokes and other scurrilous remarks during civil rights discussions at the White House.

Terrel H. Bell, in a memoir of President Reagan's first term, said the slurs included references to the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as "Martin Lucifer Coon" and calling Title IX, a federal law guaranteeing women equal educational opportunity, "the lesbian's bill of rights."

Bell's memoir is titled "The Thirteenth Man: A Reagan Cabinet Memoir." In it, he says that "since I had heard Ronald Reagan speak out convincingly against all forms of discrimination, I felt that my own dedication to enforcement of the civil rights laws as they applied to education would have the full support of the President."

SNIP...

Elsewhere in his book, he depicts Edwin Meese III, the former White House counselor and now attorney general, as "a man who literally detested the federal government." He calls Meese "the champion of the far right in the White House."

Bell, now a professor at the University of Utah, said Meese led a group of "movement conservatives" who operated "almost like a secret society" and fought to abolish the Department of Education and steer Administration policies to the right.

CONTINUED...

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-10-20/news/mn-14822_1_white-house

[WillyT]

69. K & R !!!

[liberal_at_heart]

71. I can't believe how incredibly depressing it is that Republicans are ahead of the Democrats on this

issue. I know their reasoning for wanting less testing is not altruistic but neither is the reason for Democrats' support of more testing.

[left is right]

76. Not a what if but a why shouldn't

If the congress critters from the poorest states receive the same salary as the ones from our richest states, why should’t teachers from our poorest districts earn the same salary as those from the richest districts? Further, why should there be any disparities in conditions/values of their buildings or books