Disqus - Latest Comments for blindman

Re: District moves first day of school to Tuesday; Union says it won't return without an agreement - Kent Reporter

blindman — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:55:59 -0000

...and now you're just one more data point proving the old adage, "those who can, do; those who can't, teach."

Re: Judge orders Kent teachers back to school; union to decide on action this afternoon - Kent Reporter

blindman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:02:35 -0000

The Harlem Children's Zone program reaches out to try to change the parent's behavior very early on in a child's life, but if that fails, they step in to take up the slack left by the parent. A lot of kids in the Harlem Children's Zone are foster kids, kids of drug addicted parents, and/or kids of homeless parents. And yet, their test scores are phenomenally high.

It just proves my point that the existing system--which operates without considering a child's homelife--is fundamentally broken. The teacher's unions are the one organized group willing to spend millions of dollars protecting the status quo.

There is no excuse for any percentage of kids not making grade level on standardized tests. When KSD posts numbers in the 60% range, what you are seeing is a system that does not do enough. The teacher's union is at odds with what the Harlem Children's Zone has shown is "enough". How many teacher's in the KEA would be willing to work the necessary 8am to 6pm school day that the HKZ does? How many KEA members would be willing to work the August to July school year? How many KEA members would be willing to work the Saturday tutoring sessions or the evening Baby College classes?

The existing system is broken.

Re: Judge orders Kent teachers back to school; union to decide on action this afternoon - Kent Reporter

blindman — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:42:10 -0000

You are wrong. All of the excuses that blame the kids are wrong (e.g. high turnover, poverty, parents that don't care, etc...) See the Harlem Children's Zone for a perfect example of a different system that successfully educates kids from the most disadvantaged homes and backgrounds (e.g. single parent, government assistance, homeless, drugs, violence, etc). (NOTE: the HCZ runs charter schools because the local public schools and teacher's union rejected their efforts to reform the Harlem public schools.) The "traditional" school district/teacher's union model just does not work in districts with large populations of impoverished and/or immigrant non-English speakers.

Geoffrey Canada, the founder of Harlem Children's Zone knows this <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fac4nABv3A8>. President Obama knows this <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh5QRMaa_KE>. The KEA and the greater WEA have fought tooth and nail to protect the status quo and preserve their monopoly over the classroom. When initiative 177, the charter schools initiative, came up for a vote in 1996, it was defeated because the WEA spent *millions* fighting it. (The WEA set a record for the most money spent defeating a statewide initiative that still stands today.) Here's the link about the initiative: <http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Washingto...)>

Any school or school district that has 30+% of kids scoring below grade level on core subjects such as math and reading is FAILING. And I place all of the blame of failing schools on the teacher's union because they are the primary force preserving the status quo. We need to rethink the old school district model. The Harlem Children's Zone proves this to be true. The teacher's union is completely out of step with reality. They don't care about parents. They don't care about kids. They don't care about producing results. They only care about extracting the most money possible for the least amount of work.

I'm no Democrat, but I sure hope that Kent gets to be one of President Obama's "Promise Neighborhoods". With federal money being the public side of a public/private partnership, there is nothing in state law preventing it. The new schools would be private schools that give 100% scholarships to all kids who enroll. They would be charter schools in every way but their name. We'd get early childhood education programs and intensive ESL programs. We'd have an extended school day so that single parents can work full time without having to pay for day care. We'd have an extended school year to maximize learning and minimize the "drag" of a long summer vacation. We'd have all of the surrounding social programs to help struggling parents help their kids and keep them in school and get them through college. We'd get baby college, the 3 year old journey, the intensive pre-K prep program and an independent primary, middle, and high school. All free from teacher's union influence.

And where would the WEA/KEA be on this? Probably suing the federal government to trying to stop it. Probably pouring millions in to congressional campaign funds trying to twist arms in Washington. They'd be thinking: "We can't have those kids actually learning and succeeding. It's making us look bad! It threatens the status quo where we're in complete control."

I know it is probably unrealistic, but I'd love to see a Reagan-esque firing and banning of striking teachers in this state. We need to break the back of the teacher's union before we'll ever be able to reform the school system to be aligned with current reality.

And by the way, when you use an em dash to isolate a separate thought within a sentence, the rule is to use two hyphens and no spaces like so: I'm starting this sentence--but I have another thought--which is ending now. I would think an editor of a newspaper would know these things. I had to go to college to learn that. The KSD never taught me.

Re: Judge orders Kent teachers back to school; union to decide on action this afternoon - Kent Reporter

blindman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:10:36 -0000

In other states where they have charter schools (which are illegal in Washington), the administrators of the charter schools aren't bound by law to hire only union teachers. Therefore the teacher's unions don't get to set certification rules for all paid teachers. Given the freedom to hire anybody to teach, school administrators in high immigrant areas tend to hire native speakers from the surrounding community to be "vice"-teachers. Paid, in-class teachers that help the main teacher bridge the language gap. In our state however, you must have a teaching certificate--which usually means a masters in teaching from a university--before you can be paid to teach. This eliminates any possibility of hiring native speakers from the surrounding community to help break through the language barrier.

Our government already pays for retraining immigrants in English. Why not then take the graduates of that program and give them paid jobs in local schools helping with the ESL children? The simple answer is that the teacher's union doesn't want to give up its monopoly over teaching jobs. And the politicians in this state are so in bed with the unions that they'll never do the right thing and force the legislation through. The end result of the continual quid pro quo between the politicians and unions means that we're creating a perpetual under-class of adults who were completely failed by our public school system as kids and are destined to be poor, criminal, and/or on the public dole. I guess the upside for the powers that be is that those people will be Democratic voters.

Re: Judge orders Kent teachers back to school; union to decide on action this afternoon - Kent Reporter

blindman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:57:09 -0000

There are a ton of young, newly educated (i.e. are comfortable with and can use technology effectively) and motivated teachers who lost their jobs last year because they didn't have enough seniority in the union. I'm sure all of them would love to go back to work. Having a seniority system only serves the teachers and nobody else. I think most parents want the *best* teacher for their kids, not the *oldest* teacher.

The continual failure of the KEA (district averages for on-grade reading is 67%, math is 70%, science is 32%!!) proves that the seniority system, and the tenure system in general is broken. It is one of the last vestiges of the 1950's. I think it's time to redesign the entire system.

I continually hear people make up all kinds of excuses for why the standardized test scores for KSD are so low: high turnover, parents who don't care, poverty, etc. That, to me, is blaming the kids and not the teachers. There is a new model for educating America that is being done in Harlem right now. It is called the Harlem Children's Zone. It is an organization of charter schools (meaning no union or tenured teachers), social programs before/after school, early childhood programs for kids and parents, and tutoring programs. It seeks to enroll all of the kids in a 97 block area in the worst part of Harlem, so it isn't cherry picking the brightest kids for the charter school (a common argument from teacher's union proponents for refuting charter school success). The 3rd grade test scores for the 2009 NY standardized test (their equivalent to our WASL) had 100% on or above grade level in math, and 97% on or above grade level in reading.

The existing school district/union teachers method is broken. It only works in upper-class neighborhoods where there is little poverty, all kids speak english, there is plenty of tax money to go around and the parents have the time and motivation to be engaged with the school.

In a district like Kent, there is no possible way that it can achieve the scores that the Harlem Children's Zone is achieving. First of all, there aren't enough teachers who speak the languages spoken by the children. The union teacher certification requirements for being a paid teacher means that the KSD can't hire (uncertified) native speakers from the local community to help in the classrooms. The KSD relies on volunteers, but because of the poverty, the native speakers don't have the time. They're just trying to put a meal on the table. Also, the school district doesn't provide any programs from birth to 5 years of age. The most crucial time to intervene in the lives of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. By the time the kids reach kindergarten, they are already way behind their peers in language, reading, and non-cognitives skills.

This system is broken. The teacher's unions work tirelessly to keep the established, broken, status quo. It's time we break the back of the WEA, KEA and others so that we no longer have entire generations of Americans destined to be worse off than their parents.

Re: DEVELOPING STORY: Legal decision on Kent teachers' strike is imminent - Kent Reporter

blindman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:40:40 -0000

My guess is that she doesn't/won't go to Scenic Hill/Kent Elementary, Mill Creek Middle School, or Kent Meridian, a high school where drop out rates are 27%.

Re: DEVELOPING STORY: Legal decision on Kent teachers' strike is imminent - Kent Reporter

blindman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:22:14 -0000

I'm sorry your kid is stuck in the KSD. The KSD is terrible. Just check the state's school report card website. KSD used to be one of the best school districts in the state. Now the Bellevue School District routinely scores 10-20% points higher on the state's standardized tests at nearly all grade levels. The KSD has become the new "inner city" school district in the state.

Re: Class sizes in Kent: How much is too much? Other districts weigh in - Kent Reporter

blindman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:42:45 -0000

I think it's obvious now that the KEA is wrong on all fronts. I hope the judge forces them back to work.

Re: STRIKE IN COURT: Judge to make decision Thursday in Kent teachers' strike - Kent Reporter

blindman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:40:58 -0000

I agree. If the teachers won't go back to work, fire them and hire all of the laid off teachers from Kent and surrounding districts.

Re: District goes to court to force teachers back to the classrooms - Kent Reporter

blindman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:09:39 -0000

"'They can't replace all of us!' shouted one person."

Yes they can and I hope they do. Your student's test scores are so low, it's clear to see that the KEA as a whole is incompetent.

Re: District goes to court to force teachers back to the classrooms - Kent Reporter

blindman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:05:26 -0000

I have no pity for the teachers. I hope the district locks them out long enough for them to suffer severe financial consequences (e.g. losing their homes and cars). On my way to work this morning, I drove by a picket line and saw a line of teachers in North Face fleeces, drinking a venti starbucks and joking around.

I think the number one reason people generally don't support the teachers can be seen here: <http: reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us="" wasltrend.aspx?grouplevel="District&schoolId=117&reportLevel=District&orgLinkId=1561&yrs=&gradeLevelId=4&waslCategory=1&chartType=1">. The Kent School District sucks. The traditional public school district model with a school board and teacher's union fails when it faces significant populations of children living in poverty and/or cannot speak English. We generalize and refer to these school districts as "inner city" school districts.

We need to fire all of the teachers and reorganize our school district with a new model. I suggest we emulate the Harlem Children's Zone model. President Obama wants to fund 20 "promise neighborhoods" modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone. I would love to see Kent be one of those neighborhoods. Current state law couldn't prevent it either. They would be private schools with full tuition scholarships for all kids who enroll.

Re: District goes to court to force teachers back to the classrooms - Kent Reporter

blindman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:48:22 -0000

Not when the strike is *illegal*.

Re: District goes to court to force teachers back to the classrooms - Kent Reporter

blindman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:45:54 -0000

"The district has, however, extended the summer feeding program until the strike concludes."

"Summer 'feeding' program"? The way you report this makes the poor kids sound like cattle.