Everything wrong with education in 1 article: The Daily Howler: How the Mousketeers hustle us kids!
Alex Wagner adopts the position: Alex Wagner is spectacularly telegenic and she’s plenty smart.
For that reason, she is one of MSNBC’s gang of fiery new liberal Mouseketeers. They make us feel that we’re part of the gang. They’re youngish and they're lots of fun. They're our very best friends on TV.
If they came out one day yelling, “I’m Alex! I’m Chris!” would anyone be surprised?
When necessary, these Mouseketeers may adopt the company line. To see Wagner do so concerning the Chicago school strike, click over to Digby’s post.
One point is essential:
None of the people on that panel have any idea what they’re talking about! They don’t know what goes on in urban schools. Beyond that, they don’t care. They don’t understand the potential problems with the use of standardized tests to evaluate teachers. They certainly don’t understand the reasons for the current strike.
They have no idea what they’re talking about. That said, they do know their scripts.
(In principle, we’re not opposed to using standardized tests as part of teacher evaluation. Key words there: In principle.)
After her initial presentation, Wagner adopts the corporatist line in every word out of her mouth. Here’s what she said in her second throw, the toss she made to John Heileman:
WAGNER (9/12/12): It’s worth noting, it’s hard to say, “Look, we don’t want to be evaluated. You just have to keep paying us what you’re paying us.”
Cute. You’ll have to watch to evaluate her tone, which we would describe as snide.
In her next contribution, Wagner snidely noted that Chicago teachers are being paid an average of $76,000. She forgot to say what she is paid for reciting the company line.
“Let me say one thing though,” the fiery TV liberal continued. “I mean, the narrative here is that somehow the teachers unions do not have the interests of children at heart. And the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of Chicago school children not in school doesn’t do much to ameliorate that image.”
Wagner snarked as she said it....
...But the highlighted text explains what’s happening as liberals adopt the “reform” position. For whatever reason, big-money people like the Bloomberg/Gates version of “education reform”—and Democratic candidates adore those big-money people! Cory Booker ran out to kiss big-money ass during the dust-up over Bain Capital.
Now, Booker is kissing big-money ass over “education reform.”
Beyond that, big-money people have been behind NBC’s weird advocacy for the Rhee/Bloomberg line—and Wagner is paid by NBC. We’ll have to guess that she is paid much more than that $76,000 per year. The future pay-days will be vast, as long as she colors inside the lines.
Full article: http://laborspains.blogspot.com/2013/01/excellent-piece-from-earlier-in-year-of.html
Originally published: http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-mousketeers-hustle-us-kids.html
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