A Rhode Island school board’s decision to fire the entire faculty of a poorly performing school, and President Obama’s endorsement of the action, has stirred a storm of reaction nationwide, with teachers condemning it as an insult and conservatives hailing it as a watershed moment of school accountability. The decision by school authorities in Central Falls to fire the 93 teachers and staff members has assumed special significance because hundreds of other school districts across the nation could face similarly hard choices in coming weeks, as a $3.5 billion federal school turnaround program kicks into gear. I am extraordinarily angered by this decision, and stunned by the fact that Obama seems to endorse this scorched earth approach to solving such a complicated problem. These are underpaid teachers struggling to do a good job in a challenging environment, not petulant Teamsters demanding longer coffee breaks! And just who does the Rhode Island school board think they are going to find to replace these 93 fired teachers? What qualified educator in their right mind would interview for a job in a school that treats its teachers this way? The Washington Post shares my dismay. Now, all they have to do is find 93 excellent professionals to take their places. Recruiting the best educators should be easy, especially when you can offer them life in a very poor town and a job with no security. Just take a look at the statistics working against these potential replacement teachers. The statistics are dreadful, according to a CNN report, “Central Falls High School is one of the lowest-performing schools in Rhode Island.” The network adds that the school “operates in a community where the median income is $22,000, according to census statistics.” “Of the school’s 800 students, 65 percent are Latino and most of them consider English a second language. Half the student body is failing every subject, with 55 percent meeting requirements in reading and only 7 percent in math.” Can’t you just see teachers all over the country fine tuning their resumes for a chance to work at THIS school? These are teachers not fucking magicians! When teachers are facing these kinds of challenges you don’t deal with them punitively you offer them support, incentives, guidance. These are the same tactics used by Ronald Reagan back in 1981, to bust a strike by the air traffic controllers, the repercussions of which we are still feeling even today. The lessons learned from that debacle should inform President Obama that these decisions should not be taken lightly and that the fallout can last decades. I also find myself stunned that this president still uses the bullshit measurements provided by George Bush’s anti-educational No Child Left Behind Act to determine a school’s worth to its community. The NCLB act is one of those most punitive and unfair pieces of legislation to ever make its way through the Senate. It destroys children’s creativity and unfairly punishes schools in lower income or multi-lingual communities. Our President, who grew up in Hawaii of all places, should be hyper sensitive to that reality. But sadly he seems to be focusing on the numbers at the expense of the human cost of this decision. I expected more from this man who I worked so hard to help elect. Fortunately it appears that cooler heads may prevail . A Rhode Island school superintendent and union leaders, who have been at odds over a decision to fire every teacher at a struggling high school, signaled Wednesday that a compromise that would preserve jobs and overhaul the school may be possible. Gallo’s statement followed an overture Tuesday from the Central Falls Teachers’ Union, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers. The instructors have offered support for a longer school day, as well as more rigorous evaluations and training, among other steps. That appeared to pave the way for reopening negotiations on the proposed dismissals. Well that is comforting news, and I certainly hope that the real grownups involved in this situation will do the right thing for these children. And that is NOT to fire a whole school full of teachers! However I am worried that Obama’s rash decision to weigh in on this crisis has damaged his credibility with America’s educators. I was working at a school during the 2008 caucuses and election, and I can tell you these people were passionate about politics. I had a number of very animated exchanges with teachers supporting Hillary before the nomination process was complete, and then a few with McCain supporters before the general election. These were the people most likely to show up for a rally, or make phone calls to help their candidate, or donate their time fund raising. And they have long memories. From this time forward President Obama needs to make sure that any decision which has this response: conservatives (are) hailing it as a watershed moment of school accountability. Is a decision that he avoids like the plague. Republicans have been trying to destroy the public school system for decades. Remember, an undereducated populace is much more likely to vote for the GOP ticket. It is in the best interests of any Democratic President to do everything in their power to spoil the Republican plans to dumb down our future voters. And job one toward that goal, in my opinion, is to quickly do away with NCLB, and to start giving our nations teachers the tools and the incentives to help create the artists, and inventors, and scientists, and politicians, and dreamers of tomorrow.
