Sometime life is just math. Do we add value to our lives? Where
does that value come from? Is it stolen from the lives of others or is it achieved
through our own noble efforts? What makes us truly rich or poor? Dollars do not
add up to character and the soul of a good man is not for sale.
Let’s begin with
poverty. There is not a wealthy person on earth who has not reached wealthy
status initially without income not derived from the poor. This comment means
tracing created wealth to its foundation. Either labor or purchases of the poor
are directly responsible for the survival of a business. Now let’s look at
PARCC
To complain that there is no standard of learning is merely
a ploy. The standard is a diploma. The
standard is getting promoted one grade at a time once requirements of proven
ability have been demonstrated. It is how all of us adults who have PUBLIC
EDUCATION generated diplomas got them. We reached that plateau of success without
a test at the end of 12 years of education that would stop us from graduating.
Good grades are the standard. So how does a young adult get to their senior
year without reading on grade level? What are the options for that student and
who is to blame? That student, now an
adult, is in jeopardy of being poor for the rest of their lives.
Give up the rhetoric and the data and look at the function
of business. Where did PARCC come from? Where did Common Core come from? Where
is Pearson in all of this? Who benefits from a person who is doomed to poverty
by whatever circumstances keeps them bound? Are those circumstances contributing
to generational poverty something we can change?
Businesses want cheap labor. Labor cost coupled with the selling
price of the product is the singularly most direct impactor of profit. Why give
more money to one politician when you can give less to another and get the same
influence? (I digress). The point is business
likes people in poverty and they want people to think what they are selling is
important enough to buy.
College used to be important. In fact it was so important
that people incurred debt for many years to get it. Now trade schools present a
shorter or direct path to skilled careers. This brings us back to High School or
primary and secondary education in the US. These systems are the foundation of
the future. These systems determine
workforce, value of education, and the ability of a society to advance.
So what was so valuable to us that we allowed
these human beings who could not read to advance? NCLB created a society that
was left behind. To many that is ok because that is how it was designed. It
worked. I know many teachers who have anguished over NCLB and PARCC. It is
because they see the damage first-hand. They are those working in areas where
it is almost destiny to be poor.
Business majors know that sectors influence economy. We can
all agree that there was a housing bubble and that it affected financial markets
to the point of collapse. What they won’t discuss is that the housing market
was targeted by the financial market. We expect kids to learn to read, write,
and do math. We as adults don’t do these things as we have our noses to the
proverbial grindstone. Why would we sign anything that is so lengthy it is hard
to read in its entirety? Why would we use a monetary vehicle that is so
complicated we have to have someone we trust to explain it to us? The expression
always read the fine print comes to mind.
We know math can be simple. There is nothing hard about
adding what you make and subtracting what you pay from that amount. Everyone
who has ever broken a dollar knows how to account for an expenditure. If you want to predict over time then you
multiply which is still just fancy addition. It does not matter what terms you
use to label income or debt they are still plus and minus. These things have
not changed. Business degrees get more complicated because we accept more terms
and more challenging ways to achieve the same simple addition and subtraction.
So now we have PARCC and it is supposed to fix all our
problems. The PARCC’s questions certainly don’t make math, reading or writing
any easier to perform. In fact just as financial instruments have been allowed
to become so complicated, the basic skills are being complicated. Maybe it is because
the people who complicated what happens to your money in the bank are now
attempting to control what happens when your kids are in class. Yes your kids,
because this is not happening to THEIR KIDS. Charters are not required to take or administer the PARCC.
One must understand how PARCC is being used to close urban
schools. Urban school budgets pay charter schools upfront based on Charter
enrolment. Charters participating in the for profit mode select the kids they
wish to keep often using involuntary opt in. This means that they cull their
enrolment by sending low performers and alleged disciplinary problem students
back to the public schools while keeping the funding associated with them
thereby creating a profit. This profit is realized while creating a further
lack of funding for already underfunded traditional public schools. Many
parents remove kids from charter schools citing disciplinary actions or
education performance that is no better and sometimes worse than traditional
schools.
PARCC is intended to fire teachers for under performance and
close schools for not meeting benchmarks while the PARCC itself has no
established record. Teachers are blamed when the very systems to take and
prepare for the test do not exist through budget shortfalls and unfunded
mandates from the state. Meanwhile the test providers get rich without bearing
the cost of preparation or administering the test. Teachers are forced to teach
to the test instead of documented teacher approved methods. Any resistance means
being targeted, leaving many teachers with three distinct options. These options
are: Leave teaching, succumb to pressure, or fight back. Many are leaving as
the stress of resistance and the harm done to the kids, teachers, and education
as an artful skill is unethical and in direct opposition to why many became
teachers. Many are fighting back because they have chosen to not surrender.
They have chosen to place kids first, oppose the privatization of schools, and
fight for productive education and equity for all students. Many have joined forces
in their resistance. These people are called Badass Teachers or BATS. They are
not just teachers they are people who care for education and the promise it
holds. BATS can be found in almost every state and internationally.
Reports have been written about under preforming Charter
schools, budget corruption, mismanagement of funds, and exorbitant salaries.
The profit centers fail due to the emphasis of profiteers over quality
education. They claim to be public schools when getting funding and then claim
to be private when their budgets and expenditures are investigated. Urban
school districts reporting a budget deficit often have a figure which directly
mirrors charter school payment amounts. When
asked in an urban school district what the charter school deficit was compared
to the district wide deficit no response is ever given. Charter schools are
funded at 95 to 98 percent through taking district money first. They never have
the underfunding problem and due to the legislation pushed by wealthy charter
school profiteers they never will.
Such legislation in NJ is the Urban Hope Act. I will detail
the legislation in another piece. For now I will say that through NJ legislation
profiteers placed Trenton, Newark, and Camden public schools in harm’s way and
set the stage for privatization and traditional public school takeover purely
for profit.
So what can you do? Opt out of PARCC. It only takes a letter
or note to the school that your kids will not be taking the test. It does not
have to be detailed. Just opt out in writing. The districts are required to
administer the test. Your kids are not required to take it. Do not accept the
districts lie that the test is mandatory. You have the option of opting out.
You are not alone. This is a National movement to break the data chain they
wish to create.
The company Pearson is monitoring social media accounts of
kids and parents regarding all communication concerning PARCC. It is a
violation of privacy and free speech.
That is not ok. What is clear is that we are making headway. We are making
them concerned about what we say. It is
us who are being tested. Will we stand and fight or be the backs on which
fortunes are built. The math is simple. Do we add to our lives or do we let
others subtract from our lives while adding to their own?
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