Teachers Are Terrorists

“Education Secretary Rod Paige Calls NEA a 'Terrorist' Group

By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer

Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige yesterday told the nation's governors that the largest teachers union in the United States is a "terrorist organization" -- a remark that prompted a torrent of criticism and an apology by the end of the day.

Paige made the comment about the 2.7 million-member National Education Association in a private meeting at the White House with the National Governors Association, less than a week after he announced the administration was relaxing testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind law. The landmark education law has come under mounting opposition, and the NEA has been among its strongest detractors.

Sources familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Paige's remark was in response to a question about his opinion of the NEA toward the end of a two-hour panel discussion that included five other Cabinet members.

The sources said Paige drew a distinction between his disdain for the union and his admiration for classroom teachers, whom he called "the real soldiers of democracy."

Democrats and leaders of labor groups and other liberal organizations immediately condemned the terrorist analogy. Terence R. McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, accused Paige of using "the most vile and disgusting form of hate speech." Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said: "Teaching is one of the most important professions, and we should celebrate -- not chastise -- those who make such heroic contributions."

NEA President Reg Weaver said in an interview that the secretary had "outraged" the union's members "and by extension many of their families as well as many of the children we work with day in and day out." Weaver said the NEA's disagreement with the administration over the 2001 education law "is no cause for the administration or anybody else to call anybody a name."

By late afternoon, such pounding had produced a written apology from Paige, although not a more conciliatory tone toward the union. "It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms," Paige said. "As one who grew up on the receiving end of insensitive remarks," said the secretary, who is black, "I should have chosen my words better."

In his apology, Paige continued to criticize the NEA, saying the organization's "high-priced Washington lobbyists have made no secret that they will fight against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children."

Susan Aspey, an Education Department spokeswoman, said, "The secretary certainly is not prone to this type of remark. He realizes the remark was wrong, and he moved quickly to issue an apology."

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston chapter of a rival education union, the American Federation of Teachers, who knows Paige from his days as that city's school superintendent, said last night she believes his words were intended as humor. ". . . I can hear him saying it as a sarcastic remark. This was a man that would come up to me and say, 'How's my favorite labor terrorist?' " Fallon said. "Granted, the country wasn't as sensitive about the word then.

"The NEA isn't militant enough to be a terrorist group," Fallon said. "They're barely militant enough to be a labor union."

Others were less charitable. "I know President Bush wants to run as a wartime president, but this is ridiculous," said Robert Borosage, president of the Institute for America's Future. "Our public school teachers protect millions of children from the terrors a lack of education brings. They are not terrorists."”

“Live Better, Work Union”

“This moron should step down. So I guess it's true that if you are anything but a Repub, you're a traidor, Commie or a Terrorist. What an #&%!$!

My wife has heard him speak before. He's a real jack ass in person also.

Head on a stick!

Head on a stick!

Head on a stick!

Head on a stick!

Head on a stick!

Head on a stick!”

“Hey, I thought it was only the t

never mind.”

“Have I said this before: This is Cold WarII. Red scare to Islam scare.”

“So he made a gaffe. It's just a verbal manifestation of the struggle between the players that has existed for some time now. Who cares? This is like that guy who got in trouble for saying "nigardly."”

“Mutt - This is just the first time this guy's BS has made it into the press.”

“If his respnse wasn't 99% attack on the teacher's union, I might be inclined to agree with you. But, it wasn't and this guy is so full of himself that he may likely explode at any time now. F_ck that bureacratic asswipe and the arrogance that seems to be a pre-requisite with this administration. That was no apology, my friend. The guy was wrong, clear cut!”

“Nigardly wasn't a gaffe, however. He used it correctly. The Morons who heard it and misinterpreted it got their panties in a bind over it.”

“Oh, okay, laqtis, I see now that he meant the NEA literally goes around bombing civilians. Thanks!

The guy's an a$$. So what? They're a dime a dozen in Washington.”

“That much is true, Mutt!”

“Ahem. lets remember they are concentrated in a few buildings and have nothing to do with the local population. Thank you

:)”

“yes, bearmagnet, that is an important distinction!”

“Although, I have been called an a$$ and much worse. But personaly I think I'm a damn great guy!

I'm good enough
I'm strong enough
and gosh darn it people like me.”

“Mutt - Easy there, homey. My wife is a Teacher of 8 years and I've worked in education for 11 now. Yes, it's an #&%!$ comment, however, it's a slap in the face to the outstanding teachers around this country, that get up every morning and try and make a difference in these kids lives. This little slip shows what he really thinks of America teachers. He is in charge of Education Department, fer crying out loud.
He's said BS stuff before, maybe not along these lines and a little more "covertly", all I'm saying is that this is the first time it's made it into the press.
Excuse me if I have high standards from our people in Government. I'd be just as pissed about that if it was Smokey the G-d damn bear that said that!”

“Its just more anti-labor BS.

Labor has been called "communist" for decades with the same ugly intent.

OK, the guy is a fascist pig!”

“"Live Better, Work Union"

MarkO
I wish that was true,but the Soviet Union proved otherwise.”

“"Some of the very people and organizations that applauded Brown and worked to implement it are now opposing No Child Left Behind: unions, teachers, civil libertarians, liberal politicians, and education advocates. Why? Because it exposes their special interests. Their opposition is about power, politics, and pride, not the best interests of our children."
-- Sect. Brown before the American Enterprise Institute Jan. 7, 2004



Get it? When people who have devoted their lives to educating children disagree on policy, they are power obsessed terrorists.”

“Apparently Little Mister Roderick has been under quite a bit of stress lately. He should probably masturbate more... But Not In Public Like This.


Freakin' SFB”

“"I wish that was true,but the Soviet Union proved otherwise."
uncliff
10:01:59 AM

You gotta be kiddin'!

Organized labor helped bring down the U.S.S.R.

Have you ever heard of Polish Solidarity and Lech Walensa(?”

“You're wasting your breath, MarkO. Right wing, wacko dogma will always believe the USSR was brought down by Reagan's Star Wars.”

“Lay off the crack, uncliff!”

“When the Union doesn't work, try Ricin! Hey, the NEA isn't a terrorist organization but maybe the Teamsters are?”

“Yes aero, I would call that un-scientific fiction.”

“Watch it bearmagnet, I'm a Teamster and a member of A.F.S.C.M.E.

And I might just take a little trip to the Pine Barrens soon.....wannna go? >:^O”

“Right wing, wacko dogma will always believe the USSR was brought down by Reagan's Star Wars.

Reagan's military buildup accelerated the USSR's collapse. It alone didn't cause its collapse, but it did hasten it. That's hardly right wing dogma - that's an argument with a long and strong history of factual support.”

“
Perla Arrodondo, 20, spent three years in ninth grade at Austin High, then was promoted to 11th grade. She thus did not take 10th-grade state tests.


Education 'Miracle' Has a Math Problem

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer

HOUSTON -- When the state of Texas bestowed "exemplary" status on Austin High School in August 2002, ecstatic administrators compared the honor to winning the Super Bowl. There was more cheering and pompom-waving a few weeks later when a private foundation honored Houston for having the nation's best urban school district.

Just a year later, the high school has been downgraded to "low-performing," the lowest possible rating. And the Houston Independent School District -- showcase of the "Texas educational miracle" that President Bush has touted as a model for the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it inflated its achievements through fuzzy math.

Austin is one of more than a dozen Houston high schools caught up in a burgeoning scandal about the reliability of their dropout statistics. During a decade in which, routinely, as many as half of Austin students failed to graduate, the school's reported dropout rate fell from 14.4 percent to 0.3 percent. Even a Houston school board member calls the statistic "baloney."

If this were any other school district in the nation, few people would pay much attention. But Houston is the political springboard for U.S. Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige. He was school superintendent here before moving to Washington, and what originally began as an argument over dropout data has expanded into a debate about the administration's entire approach to educational reform.

Opponents of the Houston system of business-style accountability have seized on the dropout scandal as evidence that some of Paige's most cherished accomplishments -- including narrowing the "achievement gap" between white and minority students -- rest on false or manipulated data. They have raised questions about the validity of test results that purport to show spectacular progress by Houston students in reading, writing and arithmetic.

"It is all phony; it's just like Enron," said Linda McNeil, a professor of education at Houston's Rice University, referring to the bankrupt Houston-based energy services company that boosted its stock price by covering up losses. "Enron was concerned about appearances, not real economic results. That pretty much describes what we have been doing to our children in Houston."

Paige, in an interview, called such remarks "inflammatory, very unfair." He vigorously defended his record as Houston school superintendent between 1994 and 2000, saying the criticism came from people who believe it is "fundamentally wrong" to measure student achievement and who have a "vested interest" in preserving a dysfunctional status quo.

During his tenure, Paige formed a political alliance with Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who became an ardent advocate of accountability and high-stakes testing. After Bush was elected president, Paige's ideas became the inspiration for the administration's "No Child Left Behind" plan, aimed at raising educational standards nationwide. Schools now face penalties for failing to show improvement in such things as dropout rates and reading scores.

more...”

“Are you from tennesee?Are you saying you want to duke it out? Should I use more emoticons? I'm a newbie, not even sure what your emoticon means?

I was being sarcastic. And you?”

“You can't not have 40-50-60-70% unionized while the rest fight for scrapes.The teachers unions have proven what happens when money (in dues) is used against the rest of the population. The proof is in the product 'STUDENTS' how could anyone be proud of that at present production.”

“Republican strategists want to privatize education because:

a) Education is a multibillion dollar market, and the private sector is eager to get its hands on those dollars.
b) Conservatives are devoted to the free market and believe that private is inherently superior to public.
c) Shrinking public education furthers the Republican Party goal of drastically reducing the public sector.
d) Privatization undermines teacher unions, a key base of support for the Democratic Party.
e) Privatization rhetoric can be used to woo African American and Latino voters to the Republican Party.
f) All of the above.”

“See also:

Questions on Data Cloud Luster of Houston Schools

http://www.crisispapers.org/topics/education.htm”

“I think the federal Education dept. is a wasted of money. It is ineffective. Education should be a state/local concern, not federal.”

“Look out, BM. There ARE quite a few people here from Tennessee, LOL”

“Ok, I'm jivin' with ya, bearmagnet.”

“I believe the Ricin came from Tennesee. Thanx! Maybe Anthrax also?”

“Sooooooo. What exactly did that emoticon mean, Mark?”

“As a teacher I think that the NEA is for the most part useless. Many of my colleagues feel the same way. When we join our local county teacher union we are forced to join and pay dues to the NEA. Most teachers here would like to opt out.

I feel that they spend too much time on politics and not education. Just teach.

There has been talk about switching to the Teamsters.

Paige was stupid to say that. He wasted a opportunity to be constructive in criticism.

Next year I'm dropping out of the "union" .....I have a kid in college and $530 a year could pay for books.”

“uncliff - therre are many other reasons out there for the lack of student performance. Part is the fact that today's student are much more lazier than years past. Computer chat rooms, Video games, singal parent homes, lack of funding for programs, lack of Administrator support, lack of younger teachers getting into Education due to no money being in it, an older teacher population that doesn't want to change, teachers who refuse to work in urban enviroments because they fear for there lives, stupid Federal and State Government maindates, corruption.....just to name a few.

Like all problems in this world, it's not just one thing that makes it crappy. No Child Left Behind causes more problems than it cures. Why?

Well, you would like to think that this thing would make school better, by forcing them into scoring high on the evaluations. However, there was no incentive for schools to test high on the first eval. Why? Whelp, you see, it was reviled that if a school district scores let's say a 95%. Pretty good score, right? Well, let's say that the school the following year scores a 94%. Pretty good, right? WRONG! The district goes into the first phases of penity and deemed "failing", or no progress. You can see where it goes from there. The "Act" is a phucking joke, because #1 - It's under funded #2 - the scoring system sucks and screws didtricts that ARE good. #3 - It made the school wanna test as low as they could in order to have room to improve, which they will do by as little percentage marks as possible, so they don't become failing.

The penilty phases are real severe and completly outta line. This is a program designed to bury Public Ed, under the the false line of "we need improvement" line. Let there be NO DOUBT out there that Teachers want to see kids do well. In this day and age, Teacher testing is more accepted than it once was. Everyubody here in this area is gunho to make things work! But when #&%!$ like this comes down, it makes it 5 times as hard to do your job. I'm not saying that things in Public Ed don't need to change, and you will see others in this field say the same things, but THIS is not the way to do it. It is a main item to bury Public Ed so the Right Wing Repubs can give money to the Religous schools and "Charter Schools", which by the way---the Edison Project so highly touted as been a complete FAILURE!”

“JO - You deduct those dues on yer tax returns?”

“Nope.....no mortgage = deductions don't add up to enough. Besides, a deduction won't buy books right now. I'd pay for the Teamsters.”

“bearmagnet, that's my "OH NO!"
face.

Burying public education has been a Repub dream for years.

They are trying to help it fail so they can point out what a waste of money it is.

But where will we put the shanty towns?

With the American public uneducated we won't need those pesky Mexicans to do the $h!t work and we can seal the borders.”

“Apparently, they aren't really terrorists otherwise, we would get rid of them and rebuild the schools just like we are trying to do in Iraq?

It all just goes to show us all what is truly important to higher upper people...apparently, the results of their sperm meeting an egg is not quite on their top list of priorities.

Perhaps, we should all just sit back and drink a beer. While it is still legal, anyways.”

“They just don't want to pay for "those people's children".”

“I'd like to see RL chime in on this. He was (maybe still is) the president of his teacher's union, and always has something intelligent to say.”

“Hey, I do believe its the STUDENTS who are the terrorists!”

“You can't not have 40-50-60-70% unionized while the rest fight for scrapes.The teachers unions have proven what happens when money (in dues) is used against the rest of the population. The proof is in the product 'STUDENTS' how could anyone be proud of that at present production."
uncliff
10:40:36 AM
02/24/04

OK dude.
1. The majority of dues are used to pay folks like me to negotiate contracts and handle grievances. Some of the $ is used toward lobbying. The $ I think you speak of come from Political Action Comittees, who's sole purpose is to raise $ to contribute to campaingns and support certain agenda's.

2. The conservative agenda is being used against the population. NCLB is finacially straining local school districts, mainly the districts that are middle class or lower class. NCLB is not funded by the federal government. It is a conservative bill that wants to impose a conservative agenda on the schools, and, not pay for it, causeing the MAJORITY of public school systems to be in financial peril, except for those in wealthy neighborhoods of course. Unions protect the common masses from fundamentalists and capitalists, we derive power from people, they derive power from money... get it?

3. Present Production. I have a school district in a wealthy neighborhood who pay their teachers and workers on average of 30% more than a poorer district. The educational results are much better in the wealthy district, and the home values are much higher. This disparity has been happening for many years, although it has increased quite a bit over the past 3 years. Now, if you pump the 30% more into the poorer schools for say, 20 years, and fund the wealthier school 30% less for 20 years, I wonder what the results will be.

Try logic buddy.”

“Buddha Bear, that's not fair!

You are far too articulate!”

“I've always found it odd that many of the same people who like to say "throwing money at the problem" won't help the education situation have no qualms about "throwing money" at their Mercedes dealership to solve their transportation "problem" or "throwing money" at their mortgage lender for a new McMansion or "throwing money" at a prep school for their children.

If they simply don't want to pay, why don't they just say so? Why the pretense?”

“If you equate money spent with service received ,US schools would win the 'richest wreck award'. Huge factories miles from home surrounded by cars and buses and too few teachers and too many offices filled with pay check takers and coffee rooms filled with too many trouble makers and lines of tall worthless wantabe Lakers ........”