‘ROUNDING THE GLOBE’-14: Critical Analysis of Boston Globe Education Coverage
The RTTT news story from hell
Boston Globe, how about giving me a night off?
I have already consigned James Vaznis, Globe education writer, to purgatory, as the need for purification is definitely indicated. But do I need to go further in my wrathful judgments? Is he pushing me? That is the question that preoccupied me as I read his latest views-ah, I mean, “news”- about the AFT decision not to support the state’s application for RTTT. The union’s decision, we learn, could doom the state’s chances in the transparently-scripted “dash for the cash.” And that script truly is amateur hour all the way.
http://www.boston.com/news/nat…
This could be the worst news story I have ever read in my entire life, a life in which I have read one or two newspapers a day since the age of 18. (I am not even counting the “Bronx Home Edition” of the NY Post, which I read in my pre-college years). The only thing that is saving the story and its author from total damnation is the reporter’s note that he had trouble contacting the union. But please consider, the whole story, the entire enchilada, was about the union. Maybe he should have waited a day? Did he have some prior statements perchance to work with?
At approximately 5:30 pm, I was driving home on Storrow Drive when an NPR reporter told me what the Globe apparently couldn’t: just why the union took the position it did. If you stay tuned, I’ll tell you, though anyone with a passing acquaintance with this story knows, why even-no, especially-James Vaznis.
Vaznis’s lead delivered the news of the union’s decision straight up. The second graph was completely disingenuous. We learn that state education officials, “key” legislators, and “charities” were “stunned” by the decision. Oh, those charities, mind you! I can see it now…those evil unions members stealing bowls of soup from the hands of starving waifs!
Listen, no one need be stunned. Let me explain what apparently some Globe reporters do not know: there is a coalition-be it acknowledged or not-that is trying to push through a business model of education reform. This has been going on for some time. The coalition, whose dismal vision embraces high-stakes testing, merit pay based on test scores, and charters, is made up of the Massachusetts Dept. of Education, the Globe, the Boston Foundation (which is the charity is question), MassInsight, the High Tech Council and other business lobbying groups, and the conservative Pioneer Institute. They work hand in glove. Did I really have to spell this out? This is A, B, C stuff.
In the third graph, Vaznis describes RTTT in his understanding of what objectivity requires. It’s a program to encourage “classroom innovation” and “aggressive overhauls” of failing schools. Now who could possibly be against that except a crazed union? Perhaps this could have been phrased and framed in terms of what the Obama Administration claims the program will do. We have all been stunned enough today, but I will divulge that there are many teachers, parents, and students who do not believe that high-stakes testing is equivalent to “classroom innovations.” Everybody still OK?
The next number of graphs elaborate on the full dimensions of the stunning. The education commissioner calls the decision “shortsighted.” The next 6 graphs are indistinguishable from a Dept. of Ed press release. We also learn the stage may be set for the state removing the requirement for union approval. Again, various assertions are reported as simple fact, not “claims.” Then comes the education secretary calling the union position a “threat to the proposal.” A legislator expresses her deep disappointment to what this is going to do to children of the state. The Boston Foundation’s president calls the decision a crude tactic at the expense of children. This rising chorus of stunned voices is heard amidst what Vaznis describes as a “swirl of emotion.”
Apparently, the folks that Vaznis quotes are the only ones who actually care about the kids. The teachers? They hate the kids, couldn’t care less about them.
In the 23rd and last graph of this long story, the president of the MTA states rather generally that her union will not sacrifice principles for a pot of gold. She wants the RTTT application re-written.
Well, if you hung around this long, let me tell you what I heard at the Brookline ramp off of Storrow. The NPR reporter told me what I already know. And what the education commissioner and secretary know. And the legislature. And the Boston Foundation. And all the other elites working so seamlessly and selflessly with the Globe for the good of us all.
The NPR reporter said that the AFT decided not to support the RTTT application because the “turnaround” model for failing school authorizes-or is it requires?- the firing of half the faculty of a failing school, without the support of any data or evaluations. Does that sound vaguely American to you?
Folks, this isn’t about a one-time infusion of money and about “oh-my-gosh-quick-here’s whatwe-need-to do-to get-it.” This is about money being used in a very conscious way as a bludgeon to impose a certain kind of standardized, data-driven education on American kids. It is the dreariest and most unimaginative understanding possible of education reform¬, which, I might add, few of the zealous reformers want for their own kids. President Obama did well to choose the Sidwell Friends School for his daughters. (I wonder what schooling choices Globe editors have made?)
This news story did not clarify reality or provide context. Not one reader would be the wiser about what’s actually going on. The story advanced a campaign, nothing more, nothing less.
Tomorrow the campaign continues with a Globe editorial. Its headline-already posted- could have been used for this new story as well: “Instead of racing to the top, union puts its own needs first.” A two-fer. Why not.
It’s not possible to decimate a school by firing half its teachers without also disrupting and upsetting the lives of the students and families tied to that school. Harm the teachers, harm the school, harm the students, harm the community.
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p>That’s what happened in Chicago under Sec. of Ed Duncan, where schools were closed, communities disrupted, violence erupted and at least one kid died.
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p>With its simplistic equation that harming teachers = helping kids, or is it helping teachers = harming kids, this Globe editorial lowers the level of our civic discourse. What a shame.
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p>4/15/2010 6:58 AM EDT
It amazes me that at the cost of a one-time infusion of less than 1% of state education budgeting, so many people are willing to allow future presidents to decide how their education system should operate. I’m surprised who cheap many of these states are selling themselves.
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p>Given how successful our Commonwealth’s education system is (top 5 in the world, according to the admittedly suspect international regimes, tops in the world), I’m in no hurry to sell our success out for a few pennies to a couple amateurs.
We don’t need to do anything tough, or expensive for the schools. Oh, no!
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p>We have ANTZ IN DA PANTZ! We want new bodies and fresh bodies, and to “shuffle the deck” even if that solves nothing.
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p>The way schools are funded in this state and nation (local property taxes) is idiotic and moronic.
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p>All of the schools should be funded 100% federally, as they do in some European countries.
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p>The real goal of this type of thing may be to bust the teachers’ unions. They want to crack the whip and make them work for cheap wages. That ought to really get highly qualified people to teach school, paying them cashier wages. It may not educate the students, but we don’t really care about. What they really want is CHEAP LABOR.
Here’s a comment from a parent at last night’s Chandler Elementary meeting here in Worcester, where the principal will no longer work next year, since Worcester’s School Committee voted Monday to take the federal turnaround money:
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p>“Do you think if we have a new principal, it’s going to change the level of the school?” asked Jorge Matos, a parent.
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p>Ms. Boone said she agreed with his skepticism, but that the federal grants require the change. “This is throwing the baby out with the bathwater” to get rid of people “whether they’re effective or not,” she said.
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p>Mr. Matos later said in an interview that the school needs “the same team together – principal, teachers, parents” to improve. He believes the school has been making progress and that it has fewer disciplinary problems than it used to, for instance.
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p>The whole article is here.
Floridians responded with a tsunami of outrage to the legislature’s passage of the draconian Senate Bill 6, which embraced Race to the Top teachings by tying teacher pay to test scores and making it easier to fire teachers. Republican Gov. Charlie Crist took the hint and vetoed the bill today.
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p>Urging Crist to veto the destructive bill, one-third of Miami-Dade teachers stayed home on Monday, students wore black in protest, teachers drove the length of the state to meet with the governor, and parents deluged the governor’s office with tens of thousands of calls. There were more than 109,000 calls and messages, running 22:1 against the bill.
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p>Former Gov. Jeb Bush, now running a foundation, and the Florida business community were backing the bill to the hilt, but the voices of tens of thousands won the day.
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p>Imagine that.
And I’m not shocked to find a Bush on the wrong side of an issue.
I was sure that Crist would go along with it.