Dave Chandler

Maybe NOT Such a 'Good' Teacher?

"Good teacher" is certainly at one level or another in the eye of the beholder. Take Don Jordan, for instance, a writer in Sunday's Denver Post, a teacher at the Contemporary Learning Academy in Denver. He writes supporting the so-called 'tenure reform' legislation now pending in the Colorado state senate.

Mr. Jordon's very first paragraph would cause me to put him at the top of a list for job performance review. He writes:

"I start every academic quarter the same way. Through the overhead projector, I display a graph that shows my school's CSAP scores as compared to much higher-achieving high schools such as Denver School of Science and Technology and East High. The gaps are monumental."

Really. That's how he starts every quarter? Visually bludgeoning his students with the notion that they can be reduced to cold, data-driven statistics on a graph? Is that what a "good teacher" does to his young charges?

The irony for Jordon is that if the Sen. Michael Johnston bill becomes law, after twelve quarters of showing his CSAP graph of stagnant 'progress', he might very well be considered a "highly ineffective" teacher and lose his job. No matter how dedicated, no matter how much his principal may like him, well, surely crappy student scores must mean that he is at least a fifty percent crappy teacher, right?

Such is the lust for the money offered in the "Race to the Top" bribe that Obama's Secretary of Education is dangling to economically stressed state governments, that Colorado's educrats and politicians will do almost anything to get their hands on the cash. That is the basis for this hastily contrived tenure reform idea -- money, money, money.

Of course, as with so many issues, I take a very different position than both sides on this education issue. I am not necessarily being supportive of the teacher's union because I don't like this particular piece of legislation. I actually think that the teaching profession has become over professionalized. In my opinion, I would like to see many more 'real world experienced' women and men inside the classroom teaching kids -- former mechanics, small business owners, artists, clerks, accountants, etc. -- folks who know the concrete importance of learning.

I think one of the things that has debilitated the education field is way too much college-level "training" for teachers and teachers who eventually become administrators and educrats. But then again I'm for ending the concept of teachers and schools as surrogate parents -- teachers would consequently need little or no 'social work' training; a semester of basic 'teaching technique' ought to be enough.

Oh, and I also favor ending compulsory school attendance: if the youngster doesn't want to be there, then she shouldn't be ... those non-attending kids will learn in good time the critical importance of an education and then their motivation level will be such as that they will be interested, cooperative and successful.

But my ideas about education are that it is not about 'schooling' and testing and being accountability to voters and politicians -- it is about the journey of life, instilling a joy of learning, of building relationships among students and teachers that makes knowledge essential to human development and progress. As you can see, I'm a long way from the corporatized, data-driven, factory-modeled 'education' theory currently in vogue.

So, I hope this latest 'Race to the Top' tactic in the Colorado legislature bombs. And, although I'll bet that Don Jordan really is a very nice guy and a sincere teacher, that he reevaluates his commitment to the testing/accountability politics that is sapping the humanity out of our public education system today.

Leaving the Green Party

This article was published in the Thursday, April 29, 2010 print edition of YourHub.com for Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Westminster.

It also appeared in the April 23, 2010 issue of The Colorado Statesman.

I'm not writing here a lofty essay explaining some deep, consequential philosophical divergence from the Green Party of Colorado.

For those captivated by politics, it is probably rather seldom that a person experiences a major ideological crisis and leaves their party. Partings, I suspect, usually happen for much more mundane reasons.

In my case, I still find attractive and persuasive the ideas and goals of the Green Party's 'Ten Key Values'. I am also very committed to the belief that the current political and governmental structures in this country have been irredeemably corrupted by corporate and other special interest money. I, therefore, still believe that it may take an effective and dedicated third party -- with strong adherence to rejecting 'big money' -- to reform and re-democratize our Republic.

However, as has been the case with many third parties in the past in the United States, finding the resources and tenacity to continue fighting the "two party system" is very difficult and discouraging most of the time. Without an overarching great issue, like the Iraq war debate in 2002, a third party tends to lose the volunteer energy that allows it to grow or even to survive.

That is what has happened, in my analysis, to both the Green Party of the United States and the Green Party of Colorado (GPCO). Without the urgency of the war and peace issue, these organizations seemed to have lost their direction. In Colorado, the core group of activists has shrunk to about fifteen individuals, and local chapters continue to drift away.

As often occurs in groups or clubs in decline, in-fighting and turf battles actually increase as the pressure and strain to find a way to survive intensifies. This is what is going on right now in the Green Party of Colorado.

Recently, after the resignation of a party co-chair (an office I had previously held), I returned on an interim basis to that position to try and help the organization get itself together for the 2010 election. After nearly nine years as an active member of the GPCO, I didn't want to admit either that perhaps its race has been run. But, indeed, disarray and disinterest have become the environment in which this group now exists ... barely.

So, I have decided that it is time to move on to other venues to express my political opinions and indulge my political activism. No great ideological schism here, but a pragmatic realization that there are other, better ways to make a difference. Thus, as I was before I became a Green, I am again an 'unaffiliated' voter.

Let me state that most of my time with the Green Party has been an uplifting experience and I have met many wonderful, kind, patriotic people during my involvement ... I cherish those folks greatly.

And, I want to reaffirm that I am still extremely proud of my 2002 Green Party candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives in Congressional District 7. With both the Republican and Democrat candidates for that office voicing support for the then pending Iraq War Resolution, I believed then and I believe now, that it is especially critical that citizens have a genuine "peace candidate" alternative when the stakes are as high as war and peace. As we have subsequently discovered, I was correct -- we were deceived and lied to about the necessity for that war which took thousands and thousands of American and Iraqi lives.

Perhaps soon there will be a third political force in the country that will battle to honestly bring much needed reform and progressive change to our governmental institutions. If that happens, I'll be on board.

In the mean time, I am now part of that persuadable cohort of 'independents' who decide elections -- have at me!

Why Not Just Repeal TABOR?

If my state house representative, Debbie Benefield, doesn't like the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), then she should propose its outright repeal.

And that goes for everyone else that schemes for ways to carve out exceptions to TABOR instead of just being honest and working to eliminate the provision from the Colorado constitution.

Now, I like the part of TABOR that requires voter approval for tax increases, so I'm not advocating for repeal. However, I do get sort of chagrined with the political game that we have to watch every now and then from politicians that won't do or say what it is obvious that they really believe.

A lot of Dimocrats and even some Repuglicans hate TABOR ... that's fine, they're entitled to their opinion; but why don't they just petition to put on the ballot an outright repeal? Instead we get things like Amendments C and D and now this new plot to exempt 'education' from TABOR.

Of course, I know what the truth is: the politicians are afraid. They won't do what in their hearts they want to do -- support repeal of TABOR -- because they know that most Colorado voters like the restraint on taxation. In other words, supporting a simple, single subject initiative to repeal TABOR would be political suicide; so we get these tricky little schemes to make exceptions instead.

But this reveals why politicians and elected representatives remain so low in so many people's estimation of respectability ... they're not honest. Politics before principle, even a principle they actually believe in.

House Committee Passes Resolution in Support of Higher Taxes for Education | Denver Post

Supporters called it a way to help spare public schools and colleges from deeper cuts, but opponents said it was an open attack on the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. ... Sponsored by Rep. Debbie Benefield, D-Arvada, the measure needs a two-thirds vote in each chamber to pass, requiring significant Republican support.

If the proposal cleared that high hurdle, voters would decide in November whether to give lawmakers the power to raise taxes without voter approval, as is now required under TABOR in the state constitution.

Under Benefield's proposal, lawmakers could approve taxes to benefit education, ranging from preschool to post-secondary funding. ...

Colorado to Destroy Its Teachers' Corps?

I have no idea why a young person would accumulate tens of thousands of dollars of student loan debt to become a public school teacher in Colorado ... especially if the latest attempt to placate Obama, Duncan and Bill Gates becomes law here.

The money grubbing by corporate hacks, politicians and educrats just to get some 'Race to the Top' cash is shameful. Of course, there is also the publicly downplayed agenda to "charterize" public schools, too. And, I suspect that is what the federal money is really wanted for: privatize (corporatize) the control, socialize the costs of our 'public' schools.

Destroying the teacher corps is one way to advance the corporatization of public schools. Low wage teachers in insecure jobs will pretty much undercut the foundation of the traditional, locally controlled neighborhood school. What normal human being hired as a teacher is going to let themselves get too invested in students when a couple of years of 'ineffective' progress on standardized tests could mean ... unemployment.

But that's what the latest sop to 'Race to the Top' from state legislators will mean. Here's what the Denver Post says this new legislation (SB 191) would do:

• Define effective teachers and principals and use student academic growth data to set that mark.

• Base 50 percent of teacher evaluations on student academic growth and 66 percent of principal evaluations on a combination of the school's academic growth and the demonstrated effectiveness of the teachers in the school.

• Grant tenure after new teachers demonstrate three years of being "highly effective" — a classification based on evaluations weighted heavily by student academic growth data.

• Remove a teacher's tenured status after two years of "ineffective" ratings.

What is obvious from the start is that students and parents are completely left out of this new equation. Build a relationship between taxpayers, parents, children, and teachers and staff? Forget it -- two years and you're out. Unless, of course, your school is located in a well-heeled enclave of upscale affluence.

All this new proposal demonstrates is that the top-down, nationalization of all public schools into corporate testing factories is still being mightily pursued in Colorado by the "education" elite.

What we really need in Colorado is a bold rejection of the 'Race to the Top' hamster match that the politicians have signed-up for. Then we need new elected and appointed officials who will actually listen to parents and children and teachers and start building a genuine locally controlled education system in this state that makes learning (not schooling) a top priority. Real education, real learning is a personal, individual experience ... it is about a relationship between student and teacher that provokes a real investment of parental involvement with both. The value of teacher tenure concept is that it allows time and flexibility for the creation of these important relationships. It is not about testing and testing and data collection and evaluations and some more testing and more money, always more money.

'Race to the Top' and the whole Bush/Obama testing/accountability/charter theory is sadly only about producing worker drudges with massive student loan debt (ie., wage slaves) for the 'new' totally nationalized and corporatized 'low wage' economy.

So, despite the propaganda hoopla being generated by the Denver Post and the elite education establishment over this new bill, this is in truth a scheme that would ultimately destroy teaching as a respected profession ... parents and taxpayers should just say 'No More Racing!'

Colorado Renews Teacher-Tenure Debate | Denver Post

EDITORIAL: Education Bill Has Right Stuff | Denver Post