#ohio issue 2

[november52020]

[bong-rips]

somebody needs to tell the person in my dorm hall who's very clearly smoking a blunt in their room that the weed legalization in our state doesn't go into effect for 30 days

[upagainstthewallwithmee]

Welcome to Ohigho!

Issue 1 and Issue 2 officially passed!

[possforeffect]

Ohio is a goddamn clown show.

You know what Ohio's senate spent today doing? Passing a resolution urging its citizens to vote no on Issue 2 in November, which would legalize marijuana. Meanwhile, a good portion of the state next to Cleveland, its second-largest city, is a toxic waste dump because of a massive train wreck earlier in the year spilling chemicals all over a rural town. I'm sure the people of East Palestine really appreciate the political posturing the Senate is doing over some people wanting to alleviate the pain in their lives by getting high.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Lesson One: A Tea Partier's Guide to Teaching in America



Abby, my oldest daughter, was a very strong student. So what is the key variable in schools?

 I've been trying to pump up my blog traffic recently; and several of my conservative friends have been kind enough to log on and read a post or two.  I'm pretty much a flaming liberal, as most of them know--out of the closet, politically, I suppose you'd say.  I still have my Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on my car from '04 and my Obama '08, too.  So, yeah, I'm coming from a different direction than the typical Tea Party supporter. I probably ought  to scrape off Edwards' name, I admit...that cheating scumbag. Then again...Newt...really???  But I digress. That still doesn't mean a friend who lives across the street can't come out a couple of weeks ago and lend me his leaf-blower when he sees me using an old-fashioned rake.  He's a wonderful neighbor and a Tea Party supporter, himself; but when it comes to education issues he's probably a bit conflicted.  His daughter is a teacher in the public schools.  (I think he might even have cast his vote against Issue 2, here in Ohio.) As far as I can tell, conservatives believe that American education is in precipitous decline, that our system sucks tax dollars out of citizens' pockets and leaves them with nothing but heartbreak, that teachers' unions exist only to protect the incompetent, that members of those unions are "thugs" and "parasites," and liberals are the minions of the devil.  And so, only private schools and charter schools and vouchers and business control in education can save us in the end. Another conservative gentleman I know, and a good man by every measure I can think of, told me recently he couldn't understand where I was coming from in a recent post, "U. S. Education by the Numbers." So:  let me try to explain how teachers really feel to the Tea Party folks.  Imagine, my conservative friends, that your favorite football team (let's say the Bengals) is finally playing well.  At the end of three quarters, Andy Dalton has the boys in stripes leading 21-10.  Then the referees wave the Cincinnati players off the gridiron and the Ravens are allowed to keep throwing passes down an empty field and they score six touchdowns and the fans in the stands start booing the defenders and crying in their $8 beers. That doesn't make a bit of sense.  Yet, it's exactly the kind of comparison critics make when denigrating American public schools, and praising, for example, the "superior" Japanese education system. Here's how a teacher in this country sees the situation:  Japanese children attend school  240 days a year.  U. S. students go to class for 180 days.  Four quarters of football vs. three. Or:  consider the South Korean education system--also held up as model of success, and then used to shine a glaring light on America's failing schools.  In a recent international comparison, South Korean kids finished #1 in reading, #1 in math and #3 in science, out of 65 nations.  American students were #12 in reading, #17 in science and #25 in math. If you're a Tea Party American, at this point, you probably gnash your teeth and start to grumble about the evil unions.  But if you're a Teacher American (even a Teacher American/Union Member American) the number that grabs your attention is "14."  That's how many hours the average South Korean student spends every day in school, completing homework, and attending after-hours tutoring sessions, a kind of mania in that nation. If you're a public school teacher in the U. S. you think, "If I asked students to shoulder that kind of load parents would be apoplextic.  They'd be calling my principal and demanding that she lop off my head and they'd want her to spike it on the front lawn of the school to serve as a warning.  So, you dream of saying to a conservative friend:  "Both of us are going to get paint brushes and buckets and ladders and we are going to start painting this house today, at 8 a.m.  The winner, the person who covers the most surface, before they run out of paint, is going to receive $100,000 and the loser will get nothing but a lump of coal in their stocking on payday."  Then you add this caveat:  "I will use these fourteen buckets of paint.  You can have nine." Your conservative friend is going to question the fairness of such a contest, but that's how teachers see it when they hear South Korean schools are better--or schools in Finland or Liechtenstein or Glennbeckistan--and the reason for the difference is that America's teachers are unionized crooks and fools.  If an American kid spends nine hours on academics, which is close to the average, you figure that five hours extra every day, multiplied over the years, might give South Korean kids a slight advantage, academically speaking. I suppose, in one respect, I think like a Tea Partier, myself.  I don't believe that U. S. education can ever be fixed by pouring in more money.  In fact, my experiences in life (I was a lazy student once) and in the classroom seem to prove that if you give me 35 students, ready to work, and I am willing to work hard, too, and parents will back me up if I'm truly, truly demanding, then I can teach effectively in a barn, with all my students seated on bales of hay. That doesn't mean that the conservative perscription for fixing the public schools is correct.  That's just my spiel for today.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Issue 2, the Business Model, and Ohio Schools



Pedal across Nevada and you have plenty of time to think.

This summer I took a solo bicycle trip across the United States to raise money for research on juvenile diabetes.  When you pedal 4,615 miles alone, you have plenty of time to think about all kinds of political issues.  This is especially true when you're crossing the barren stretches in Nevada. At one point, after I reached Reno, I passed a billboard advertisement for some private school.  And that got me thinking about Issue 2, here in Ohio.  By now, you probably know that our Republican governor and our Republican-controlled legislature want to introduce "business efficiency" to Ohio schools. Well, really, how can opponents of Issue 2 argue against that?  Efficiency!  That's always good.  And business is all about profit, right?  You can't make a case against "profit," can you?  That's capitalism at it's finest.  Right? Look at the record of for-profit colleges, however, and you may start to wonder.  If Issue 2 passes, is the key word, at the K-12 level in Ohio, going to be "profit" or "education?" If you haven't been following the news, you may not realize that in recent years enrollment at for-profit colleges, in Ohio and elsewhere, has ballooned to 2,000,000, with much of that growth fueled by $25 billion in federal student loans.  So:  with all that money dangling in front of your for-profit nose, what's a for-profit school to do?  Well, advertise, of course.  Make it look like going to the University of Phoenix, for example, is a sure-fire path to success. Only--in too many cases--it's not.  For-profit colleges, which account for 12% of U. S. students in "higher education," rake in more than a quarter of federal student aid money, and end up with an abysmal record when it comes to preparing "graduates" for gainful employment.  As a result, for-profit colleges account for half of all student loan defaults.  Consider the "business efficiencies" introduced by the Education Management Company (EDMC), based in Pittsburgh and 41% owned by Goldman Sachs.  (With his Lehman Brothers background, Mr. Kasich must salivate when he sees the piles of dollar businesses can make running the state schools.)  The company, which made 89% of its net revenue on student loans, runs Argosy University and Brown Mackie College, among others. If you want to educate the young--and turn a tidy profit--well, you have to rely on "business efficiencies."  So EDMC developed a system to reward the most successful recruiters, creating what is know in the bowels of  Wall Street as a "boiler-room culture."  Really, it was a telemarketing scheme:  recruiters, and phone banks, and the hard sell, no matter what.  Get those students IN THE DOOR--and bonus pay for solictors who bring in the most business every day.  Take that student loan check, cash it, and put the money in the EDMC account.  It doesn't matter if EDMC employees enroll students who can't write simple essays.  It doesn't matter if they prey on the desperate unemployed during hard times.  It doesn't matter if they promise to turn marginal students into doctors, lawyers, teachers, computer programmers and nurses.  Students who were clearly on drugs were encouraged to sign up--even students without computers--to take online classes. So what, if you "hijack the American Dream," as one observer put it?  Sign up those poor suckers, with no chance of graduating, and stick them with hefty federal loans. Capitalism is about profit--first, second and last.  Governor Kasich knows that.  He, better than any public sector worker, knows that in the end the free enterprise system has a cash register for a heart and a bank balance where a conscience should go. I understand if someone wants to vote for Issue 2, if all they care about is keeping their taxes low.  But don't be fooled by the rhetoric.  There are several provisions buried deep inside Senate Bill 5, that spell disaster for our schools.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Why I Loved (Non-Standardized) Teaching: Stefanie's Astute Observation

I'VE BEEN BITCHING too much lately about strange legislation coming out of Columbus, the work of the Ohio General Assembly. So I think I'll do a few posts on why I always loved teaching. One of the great joys of a life spent in the classroom—at least in a pre-standardized world—is the chance to get kids excited and lead them in a direction (or even follow) that neither they nor you expected to go.

Standardized education anyone? Try testing this.

Every year, when the time came to look at Native American cultures, I liked to start with a quick discussion of what we called the “TV Indian” stereotype, the idea that all Indians lived the same way. To make the point clear, students listed features of the “TV Indian” lifestyle. Answers always looked something like this: Teepees Feathers Skin clothes Painted faces Bow and arrows Ride horses Hunt buffalo Talk funny, say "How," and "Ugh." I explained that Native American civilizations varied. For example, some natives relied on corn, beans and squash as dietary staples. “How come no one ever does movies about farming Indians?” I'd ask. “Because it would be boring,” the kids agreed. I liked to break into a soulful rendition of “Old McDonald Had a Farm” and ask students to sing along. No one ever did. AS PART OF THE UNIT, I always showed a series of slides that I created, including one of a woman with a strange-looking elongated skull (see above). Students gasped when the image filled the screen and I explained that standards of beauty vary. Tribes along the Pacific coast, for example, often used a board-like device to reshape babies’ heads. The higher forehead was considered attractive.

I liked to ask the kids if they could think of any modern American cultural practices that the natives might have found ridiculous. In one class, a girl named Stefanie King raised her hand a moment, thought better of it, and lowered it again. I called on her anyway. She hesitated, looked down from the high dive, and took the plunge. “Mr. Viall,” she said, “their customs seem dumb to us but it’s no different than American women who pay for boob jobs.” When the roar of laughter subsided, and after I stopped doubling over myself, I replied, “That’s why I like having you in class, Stefanie. You always know how to think.” IT'S NOT STANDARDIZED EDUCATION, of course, but in those days, a teacher could still use his best professional judgment.

Emily Cavell, one of my star students, drew this picture of the TV Indian stereotype.

[ateacherteaching-blog]

Ohio Issue 2 and "Bernie Madoff Merit Pay"

Yeah:  We can all agree with that.

Yesterday the Viall household got a slick political brochure in the mail, supporting a "yes" vote on Issue 2.  That's the referendum vote related to Senate Bill 5. It was a pretty cool ad:  all about merit pay and "rewarding good teachers" and even threw in a little bit of cleavage--a bid to appeal to the "horny vote," I suppose. Supporters of Issue 2 and Senate Bill 5, of course, hope to baboozle you with a little boobage.  They want you to believe the law is designed to REWARD Ohio educators for superior performance.  What they don't want you to do is look past the attractive model--because the history of "merit pay" hasn't been very good. A decade ago, for example, the State of Ohio began promising "great teachers" bonuses if they went through an arduous process and won "National Board Certification."  Some of the best and the brightest applied; but only a fraction of those who submitted materials won this prestigous award.  Then they settled back to collect their $25,000 bonuses, paid over ten years. Unfortunately, the State soon ran into budget problems.  So?  The boys up in Columbus announced that the money wasn't there and the bonus part of the plan would have to be scrapped.  That's what we call "Bernie Madoff Merit Pay." Think it can't happen again?  Of course it can.  Texas just gutted it's entire merit pay plan, citing deficit issues.  Funds for "rewarding" the great teachers were slashed from $392 million to $40 million, headed for zero soon.  New York City had a $56 million dollar merit pay plan; but when no one could offer proof that merit pay actually improved schools, that plan was scrapped.  Atlanta and Washington, D. C. public schools bet heavily on merit pay to "improve" test scores and ended up with rampant cheating, instead. If you vote "yes" on Issue 2, because you don't want to pay higher taxes, that makes sense and if that's your sole focus you have every right. 

Don't be a boob. Vote "No" on Issue 2.

 That still doesn't change the real focus and intent of Senate Bill 5:  to deny bargaining power to every public school teacher in the state--including the very best--and every cop, fireman and social worker, too. 

It's not a law Republican legislators passed to help the average worker--and if you vote "yes" because you think it is, you've been badly fooled.  You've been mesmerized by the two boobs and now you've voted like a boob.



Governor Kasich is NO friend to teachers--or probation officers--or highway workers--or any other working stiff in the state.  He might keep taxes low and he's a friend to powerful business interests, for sure.  He's a former former Lehman Brothers executive, after all.

That doesn't mean you can believe him when he promises, "The check is in the mail."