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An interesting art exhibit now at the 464 Gallery in Buffalo, New York  features the work of a teacher, Jennifer Scott.  It’s receiving national  attention because the art is an anti-Common Core protest. The central piece in Scott’s exhibit, “For the Love of Learning: Students First” stars a man in a crown of standardized test bubble sheets –a man exactly resembling NY Education Commissioner John King.

Another Jennifer Scott art piece with a privacy-invasion theme also features Commissioner King.  This time he’s a giant, peering in through the school room window with a gleeful countenance at small, unhappy students.

Why does Jennifer Scott use King as the puppetmaster of Common Core?  Why not Bill Gates, Arne Duncan, Sir Michael Barber, David Coleman or President Obama?

Commissioner King has been an longtime, outspoken defender of the indefensible in New York.

Recently, King has been more than just hotly criticized. The New York State Allies for Public Education (NYSAPE, a coalition of 45 parent and educator groups in the state)  actually, publically condemned Commissioner King to termination last month in a press release.

NYSAPE cited  too much emphasis on testing, problems with Common Core standards, “one-size-fits-all” statewide curriculum, and the casual dismissal of the concerns of parents and educators “to the detriment of their children for far too long.”  (Stop Common Core New York, a parent-led group, had been calling for King’s resignation for at least six months previous to NYSAPE’s call.)

The New York anti-fed-ed-reform movement grows and grows. (A full 48% of Worcester Central School District, NY, opted out of standardized math tests!) It was New York (Comsewogue District) Superintendent Joseph Rella who led a huge rally in his school’s football stadium against Common Core last year.  And now, national news about the poignant art of teacher Jennifer Scott is receiving media attention while New York legislators  work to restore local control and legitimate education.

Still, can the art of an indignant teacher, or can a handful of legislators, or can the pressure of 45 educational coalitions in New York, or can the clear reasoning of remarkable, outspoken local professors– Diane Ravitch, Alan Singer, Christopher Tienken, Nick Tampio and others–  really oust John King, his Board of Regents and the fed-ed reforms?

Consider the fact that King is a favorite, a true darling of Secretary Arne Duncan and a staunch member of the brave new politicorporate ed reform establishment.  For years, King and Duncan have been buddying about, making speeches both together and separately, officially explaining the religion of fed-ed.  This includes not only Common Core and “robust” federally accessible data but also the idea that children should be forced to stay in school for more  hours of the day, (a longtime Duncan favorite theme) or “let’s mandate more and more high stakes testing with Common Core adoption”   –notions the two insist are very, very good for children– despite a complete lack of empirical evidence to support their points.

How do they get away with this?

I don’t know.  It’s so clearly wrong.  More people need to know it.

Let’s hope Jennifer Scott’s art multiplies and influences millions of additional New Yorkers to take a long, hard look at the awful transformations happening in their school systems.  Let’s hope the parents and educators in New York win the fight for their children.

Then, let’s have an early  –very early– retirement party for Commissioner King.

 

Thank you,  Jennifer Scott.

 

 

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Nothing real supports the  outrageous, increasing, ongoing federal overtake of schools. Federal bluffing and federal pretense to education authority continues because it is upheld by the stupored, undefending millions of us who aren’t aware of our right to control education locally  –and who do not defend it.

Two federal overtake moves stand out in my mind today as heart-stoppingly wrong.  These are things that we should firmly, loudly oppose.

• The first is Secretary Arne Duncan’s mandatory preschool.  In his “Statement for the Record” to Congress concerning the new education budget request, Duncan lay aside the former practice of calling federal preschool voluntary.  In this recent (April 29, 2014) speech, Duncan called for mandatory preschool:  “The third major priority in the 2015 request is to continue the President’s commitment to expanding educational opportunity for millions of children through a $75 billion mandatory Preschool for All program…” he said.

 

• The other is the Department of Education’s principals’ re-education program, aka “Principal Ambassador Fellowship” (PAF).  Do you like the idea of federally-approved-and-groomed, model “Fellowship” principals, teaching your local principal how to “engage with” federal policies?  Me neither.

From the Department of Education’s site, learn why the PAF program exists: —“principals should have meaningful opportunities to both contribute to and understand the  [federal] policies” —“to implement needed reforms, all stakeholders… must understand the intent of [federal] policy…” —“PAF’s will spend time gaining greater knowledge of the content of key federal programs and policies…” — “Principal Ambassador Fellows (PAF) are hired.. to facilitate cooperation between the Federal Government and the non-Federal entity…”

The Department of Education Secretary said, on the very same page where he announced the PAF program, that “The best ideas in education will never come from me or anyone else in Washington, D.C.  They’re always going to come from a local level.”  Yet principals are also told to understand and engage with federal policies.    Such doublespeak. It is pretty unlikely that principals lack or need “greater knowledge” of the federal agenda.  Given the increasing number of examples of defenders, notably schools like Maesar Prep in Utah, superintendents like Joseph Rella in New York, or the example of the state of Washington, which recently refused to tie teacher evaluation to Common Core student testing and got punished by Arne Duncan’s yanking of the state’s NCLB waiver– given these examples, it is more likely that principals are showing signs of resistance to the federal standardizations being shoved down their throats. Good for them.