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Friday, July 30, 2010
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan hosts town hall forum
by Jonathan Mendick, published on September 3, 2009 at 8:20PM
Storyline: News in Sacramento
Upon Mayor Kevin Johnson's invitation, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came to Sacramento Thursday to discuss his views on charter schools and education reform. He also met with Sacramento legislators, students and teachers, before answering questions in a town hall forum.
A little after 5 p.m., Johnson introduced Duncan to a public audience who gathered inside Sacramento's Central Library. In a five-minute speech, he outlined Duncan's resume as a Harvard graduate and superintendent of Chicago's Public Schools.
"I'm more excited about the state and the potential of what we can do in this country with the leadership of President Obama and U.S. Secretary Arne Duncan," Johnson said. "They are talking about some bold reform ideas that I think we all know make good sense."
Duncan took the microphone to a round of applause and gave a 10-minute speech. He also posed questions such as, "How do we as a country get dramatically better (in education)?" and, "How do we educate our way to a better economy?"
"California is a big deal, hold(ing) one eighth of the United States' students," Duncan said, adding, "How California goes, the country goes."
"We want to invest north of $10 billion. We've never had this kind of discretionary money to invest in states, districts and nonprofits to help close the achievement gap. It's a time of tremendous opportunity," he explained.
Then he opened up the floor for 30 minutes of questions.
When asked about his opinion on charter schools, Duncan said, "I'm not a fan of charter schools. I'm a fan of good charter schools."
"What we need in our country is more good schools, and a number of things have to happen; charters are a piece of the solution - never the solution," he added.
Another community member asked what Duncan thought about promoting arts in schools.
"It's always the arts that get cut when money gets tight, (but) it's often band, choir, musicals, being on a sports team, being on a debate team that keep children in school," he said. "We cannot afford to narrow the curriculum, and (teaching the arts) is one the best underutilized strategies for keeping children in school."
Duncan also addressed a question on how to engage parents to be a part of the learning process. "Parents are always going to be kids' first teachers, and they're always going to be their most important teachers," he said. "When parent's aren't engaged or they're fighting the teachers, they're part of the problem."
"We need to do as much as we can to challenge parents to meet us more than halfway," he added.
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Kevin Johnson began by referring to other town hall meetings and how this one would be different, we would have "respect and dignity."
Interesting word choice: I was forced earlier today to point out that the mayor's spokesman apparently has "no dignity in how you represent the Mayor of Sacramento as his spokesman" on SacPress.
To the mayor's and Education Secretary's credit, with an online RSVP it was not difficult to enter the Town Hall and the questions from attendees were not prescreened. The discussion was varied and interesting. The secretary's answers were rapid fire and generally directed to the actual question. The canned aspect to some of his comments was forgivable after a full and busy day meeting with various education groups.
No one stood and asked the key questions about Mayor Johnson's record at Sacramento Charter High School and how he can claim to be an "Education Mayor" with a straight face. No one wants to pull at the Emperor's Invisible Robes.
Let the mayor's office extend similar courtesy, "respect and dignity" to the public on SacPress. The public may have an opportunity here to ask the unwelcome questions that inconvenience the Strong Mayor's agenda. Let us discuss the issues without the mayor's office sending an attack dog to piss all over open discussion.
His breakdown of "throwing around figures" was $5 Billion for ECE, $70 Billion for K-12 and $30 Billion for college.
Until the root causes of the failures of our education system are addressed...nothing will change...well..except that unionized teachers will get raises.
Having served my country honorably for 29+ years in both the capacity as a United States Naval officer and enlisted man I never forgot the mission of service to my country on a 24 hour and 7 day per week basis, and how we solved problems. To fix issues, we served the United States of America as an unified team.
My feeling is that if you want to eradicate problems, and if you want to help solve the education issues in Sacramento, then please make yourself available to help the mayor fix the issues by serving as a volunteer to him and the City of Sacramento. The mayor has meetings that are open to the public where you can sit down with him 1-to-1 to present your thoughts to him. Again, if you want to help address and solve the education issues related to children in the Sacramento region, then I highly suggest that you present yourself to Mayor Johnson face-to-face at his open meetings and give him solutions to the problems that you see with education.
Some in the community object to him spending his time on things he is not, as Mayor, charged with. Some in the community object that, with his tarnished record at Sacramento Charter High School (St. HOPE), he claims to represent education at all, as bbbbmer pointed out above.
"His" city still does not have a comprehensive public high school to replace the historic public high school that was given to Johnson (illegally) to turn into a charter school. Students in all the neighborhoods north of Broadway (within City limits west to east) in "his" city DO NOT HAVE A HIGH SCHOOL.
The absence of the central city's comprehensive high school -- 5 years after a Court order that SCUSD provide one -- strains all the other high schools beyond capacity, forces long trips to faraway schools for students and families, breaks up communities, forces families to choose schools they don't want and forces more students toward charter schools.
Kevin Johnson benefited from his charter school franchise and reached the Mayor's office. The Mayor's office should not be used to benefit Kevin Johnson's charter school franchise. His agenda for charter schools should not be forced down the throats of Sacramentans by the Mayor's office, any more than it already has been by the SCUSD and enablers at the local daily paper.
Please explain in detail how he is going to accomplish this?
"Many of the aforementioned leaders also stressed the pivotal role city leaders can play in education, sharing their experiences in systems with strong mayoral involvement in the public schools."
The above mayors all eliminated school boards and took over control of the schools. All of the above mayors push the charter school agenda as true "reform". Look, if you're going to attack people on this board, you should at least educate yourself on who and what you're talking about. I'm surprised you have not figured out the connection yet. While you're researching on Google, (I know you're a fan), look up Democrats for Education Reform. They're all connected. AL sharpton, Kevvy, Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee (Kevin's girlfriend and former employee), Mayor Fenty, Mayor Corey Booker, Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Villaraigosa, Kevvy's auditor friends Alvarez and Marsal,etc, etc. It's an incestuous little group.
It's my understanding that the Obama Administration is trying to get California to compensate teachers based upon performance. In part, the stimuls grant money is used as a carrot to help prod the state leglislature to make politically difficult decisions.
Charterization is NOT the answer, especially given Kevin Johnson's disastrous 'leadership' of the St. Hope can of worms, now under federal investigation for obstruction of justice which may result in an indictment against this sitting mayor. Charters are effective for very limited purposes, such as schools for technoligical skills or the creative arts, and SHOULD receive public support. But when public money is siphoned off with the strategic goal of undermining the collective bargaining power of the people who do the heavy lifting for educating the next generation of Americans, this is immoral and anathema to progressive remedies for the overwhelming difficulties public education faces.
I doubt those seeking the results charterization advocates pursue would enjoy being on this poorly thought out strategy's recipient end.....
"But when public money is siphoned off with the strategic goal of undermining the collective bargaining power of the people who do the heavy lifting for educating the next generation of Americans, this is immoral and anathema to progressive remedies for the overwhelming difficulties public education faces. "
We do not need to GIVE quality education for "ALL PEOPLE" just the ones that are here legally...
I would say the best way to teach math is still the flash card system. any child who does not have the additon memorized by the end of 1st grade would need to have summer classes or some way be taught them before entering 2nd grade. Same be true for subtraction iin 2nd and multiplication in 3rd and division in 4th grade. Calculators of little value if the child does not know the basics themselves.
When the young parents of this country take God seriously and start to ask God's help in raising their children, and obeying God's word this country will be on the mend.
All people need to realize that God did indeed create this world and make every human being. He loves them all and wants the best for everyone. But he does not force his will on any one , each person has to allow God to help them.