Ugh

The NY Times comes out with an editorial today in support of the regs on Duncan's Race to the Trough fund. Such a nasty piece of work.

"Education Secretary Arne Duncan will need to hold firm against the likes of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, and others who are predictably clinging to the status quo."

So, anyone who opposes the federal government's imposition of very specific set of controversial, untested policies gets tagged as "clinging to the status quo."

• Concerned about potentially harmful unintended consequences? Clinging to the status quo.
• Concerned about the capacity of state and local departments of education to implement statistically complicated and data intensive teacher value-added measurement models in a "fair and sensible" manner? Clinging to the status quo.
• Concerned about intensification of the already-awful standardized testing regime of young children? Clinging to the status quo.
• Concerned about your tax dollars getting pissed away (again) on the latest educational boondoggle? Yep, clinging to the status quo.

For what it's worth, NY Times, the history of urban school systems over the past 30 years or so has been one of too much (mostly stupid, top-down) reform, not too little. For one reference, "Spinning Wheels" by Frederick Hess -- not exactly an avid supporter of teacher's unions or the status quo -- comes to mind.

Please consider the possibility that some of us opposed to the Race to the Trough regs would, in fact, love to see some change, but this is not change we can believe in.