What's Up With That

After more than 40 years as a teacher, at both public schools and private universities, I am dismayed at how top-heavy our public school system has become. At both the state and federal levels, layers of bureaucracy seem to justify their jobs by creating more and more hoops for teachers, with poorer and poorer results in the classroom.
I know a lot of public school teachers very well. Their lives bear no resemblance to mine when I was first teaching in a public high school. I’m not talking about how technology has changed, or how media overwhelms us all….no, I am talking about the individual, dedicated professional’s inability to REALLY TEACH.
I don’t know much about Nancy Jester (just listened to a few minutes of her speech and answers), but what she ways above is absolutely correct. Want our nation to rise to educational challenges? Start by eliminating 95% of all federal bureaucracies. They add ZERO value to our students and teachers.
Don’t believe me? Sit down and have a private, serious, confidential talk with the best school teachers you know. Listen carefully to what they say, and watch the frustration and hopelessness on their faces. I think you will see what I mean.
For heaven’s sake, folks…..can’t we fix this?
A concerned teacher, parent, colleague, and friend

Posted this on DeKalb School Watch 2 blog, as some think perhaps you have “lost the plot” as evidenced by the Bear Arms T-Shirt. I think that is decidedly NOT the case. The post:

I would suggest @thedeal2 that opposing Common Core is not mutually exclusive with reducing class size. In fact one could say it goes hand and hand. After all, how do bureaucratic, one size fits all, top down programs such as Common Core get implemented?

With LAYERS of bureaucracy that quickly become opaque; with money that COULD be use to reduce class size.

We need to dissuade ourselves of the notion that Common Core is “just a set of standards.” The standards are actually a Trojan Horse whose purpose is to allow an unprecedented influence of centralized planning (re: federal government/private corporations) into the lives of children.

You think school systems that will be tasked with collected unprecedented amounts of data (with FERPA laws stealthily changed to allow its sale to 3rd parties without the parents’ consent) are going to be interested in reducing class size and creating transparency?

Having someone who understands these issues AND how they actually relate to “troops on the ground” issues like class size could be a valuable asset in a statewide office.

And if someone were to criticize such a thinking as being “obstructionist” the proper response might well be, “Good! We have some oligarchic/federal influences that NEED to be obstructed!”

Don’t know if NJ is the single best person for the job, but the fact she is willing to see the big picture shouldn’t automatically disqualify her.

Perhaps she should do a series of T-Shirts. Maybe to promote literacy standards, a George Orwell 1984 T-Shirt with the caption “Bill Gates Is Watching You.” Or to promote economic literacy a T-Shirt with the caption “Your child: A Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Pearson Educational Publishing”

The shirts were born from this blog post Nancy wrote before she started her run for the State Superintendent seat. Last November I thought shirts would be fun, could raise awareness for Nancy and be a pathway for donations.

I like your ideas. Where were you last November when I was trying to come up with something to put on a shirt?

i do understand the concern with top heavy administrative positions; however, how many new federal mandates have been handed down during the same time frame? Some positions are necessary because of federal government mandates. Unfortunately, these mandates do not give the states a choice whether or not they wish to implement them and most, are not funded.