Reply to Be careful: The same people who are weaponizing school opening are also blocking safe opening

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is political.  
Allocation of resources in any municipality is done by political leaders.  Priorities are set by those same leaders.

Frankly, the politics of race has played a large role in shuttering schools.  Minorities have been hit hard by Covid - and have not demanded schools reopen out of well founded health concerns.

In the name of “equity” politicians have kept schools closed.  The DMV has a large minority population and no leader wants to prioritize an issue that is not supported by a large group of people.

Of course it’s political in the DMV.[/quote]

So making sure that children of color have access to the same things that their white peers do is politics now? I thought that was basic human decency. It isn interesting how comfortable people are with unfairness in the system as long as they are on the winning side of it but when the coin flips, "That's not fair" is the cry. [/quote]

If you weren't such a union-hating asshole who fear collective action, then all kids could get the same education.[/quote]

Where have unions gotten smaller class sizes or science-based literacy programs? In my state the (non-collective bargaining) union isn't pushing for these things.[/quote]

Since your googler is broken: 
https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/winter-2006-2007/nurturing-teacher-knowledge
https://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/winter-2006-2007/erd-twenty-five-years-union-sponsored

Also, teacher unions promote professional development. Our district wants to move towards structured literacy but hasn’t offered teachers much yet for PD. If they had a teacher union pushing for PD that would happen more quickly.

Teacher unions also raise the level of discussion of education policy. They give teachers a seat at the table. Right now they have no voice in VA. People don’t respect teachers or the expertise they offer. Certainly not the right mindset if VA wants to improve its schools.

[/quote]

Having more teachers with a seat at the table does nothing for education policy. There are people who study education policy out there. These people should be in charge. Teachers don't know anything outside of their classroom/school.[/quote]
That’s a ridiculous sentiment. The people who work in education policy are so far removed from students and classrooms. They’ve been allowed to dictate every policy decision that undermines public schools and efforts to educate children. Parents don’t know anything about it-they just know their own children. Fixed it for you. [/quote]

Oh, I see. You think I am a parent. I am not. I do have knowledge about teachers and education policy, however. You have an incoherent view of education policy. You seem to be blaming everything bad on policy, and can't see any of the good. If you care in the least about equity, you will realize just how much policy has to do with it.[/quote]
What is incoherent? The pile of evidence that people who work in educational policy have done a terrible job? What good has anyone in educational policy done? Not succeeded in (ever) funding IDEA? Not integrating schools? Forcing schools to administer federally mandated state tests (as the federal government did literally yesterday) during the pandemic? Funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to Pearson and other big testing corporations, instead of toward literally anything that benefits students? Allowing tax dollars to be funneled to charters, starving our public schools? Creating loan forgiveness policies that deny nearly every application? Allowing predatory for profit colleges to take advantage of working class people and immigrants? You’re right. All of these policies have been genius. [/quote]

See, you are picking and choosing policies that you don't like. Without evidence-based policy, we would not have a lot of the things we currently do. Rural schools. FAPE. Reduced discrimination. Increased integration. 504 and IEPs. Any accountability. Teacher credentialing. All of the stuff that seems equitable to you about schools aside from the classroom-level is done through policy. But because this is the water you swim in, you can't see how this was created through policy at a number of levels.

I mean, I shouldn't really be arguing with anyone who can't imagine what life would be like if each teacher got to choose their students, accountability measures, and inclusivity for themselves.[/quote]
Many of the policies I listed are extremely recent, and absolutely terrible for students and teachers alike. It is a mistake to assume that “experts” outside the field are better equipped to make these decisions than the people implementing them on the ground. People love to gripe about how our school system needs to be overhauled, and I think many teachers agree. I don’t know why anyone thinks the best way to do this is to hire more overpriced, out of touch consultants, rather than to include career educators in these decisions and policies. I don’t see a single point of evidence that these “policy experts” have any sort of insight or expertise in the field that makes them better equipped than the teachers and administrators who actually run our schools. You don’t have to argue with me at all. The horrible educational policies that have destroyed our country’s education system speak for themselves. Many of the things you’re listing are ideas and not policies (reduced discrimination, “any accountability”). [/quote]

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