Jesse | 2011/11/30

How to contact your representatives to stop Race to the Top http://pointeviven.blogspot.com/2011/11/stop-race-to-top.html

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Jessica | 2011/07/11

NEA is no longer a voice of educators! It is in bed with politicians. I am educator who cares about her students and their success. I will cancel my membership because I no longer wish to pay MY money to an organization that not only does NOT support me, but actively UNDERMINES my efforts! NEA and its local branches sully the reputations of teachers as professionals. If NEA decides to rejoin professional teachers and our tireless efforts to educate children, I will rejoin.

Tired Teacher Again | 2011/03/09

And another thing! Why the bleep does everyone want to undermine public education. It would seem the liberals and republicans are in bed with each other on this. The teachers are catching all the blame for the poor performance and lazyness of students and parents. If they don't want to learn, we can't make them!

tired teacher | 2011/03/09

Why is there no information on executive salaries in the race to the top pyramid. Look at the convention they have starting this week in California. They are spending big bucks! Where is the press in all that spending. I don't even have decent books in my classroom and they are living it up at the Hyatt!

ANNA | 2010/09/22

What a **BEEP** that Obama is. I am sorry but I have a classroom of 14, with 12 in special ed. How does the U.S. and Ohio Department of Ed. think I can have all of them pass the standardized testing? That is just a part of being a public school teacher, I guess. I LOVE THE STUDENTS, IT'S THE STUFF THAT GOES ALONG WITH MY JOB.

Tracy from MO | 2010/08/05

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Pam | 2010/03/10

I read an article recently that stated,"teachers teach students" "teachers do not learn students." Teachers teach and students learn. Obama, get the message it is students who have to take what is being taught and learn from it. Teachers cannot learn students...that is something students must do LEARN. And all the teachers know are teaching their hearts out and putting in over time...they are burning out. Discipline in public schools is awful. Students are not motivated and some parents are just as bad. They don't seem to care. There is no support for the students learning at home. The only support alot of them get is from their teacher. And I have news for you, Obama, teachers can't do it alone. It takes a community working together. Wake up!!

Roy | 2010/03/05

I find it discouraging that the NEA and Obama supports the ideal that funding for education should be a competition and not a right for all of children. As a father you would think that Obama understands that teachers play a part in a child's education. But the support has to come from home. Maybe Rokel and Obama should go back to college and so they can get a refresher on the importance of the school - family - community partnership. Rokel and Obama you guys can Google Joyce L. Epstein if you cannot grasp the concept that it takes a village to raise a child. Not a test score, standards or competition. I thought I voted for change and not more of the same. What a disappointment. $4.3 billion for education for "some of our children" and $710 billion for the Iraq war.

cam | 2010/01/23

Obama is making a fool out of NEA?s endorsement of him. At least with ?W? we knew where we stood and he was smart enough to protect his friends and others who worked to get him elected. I want my vote back!

LH | 2010/01/13

Come on, NEA. GREAT PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR EVERY CHILD? Funding for public education is a GIVEN, not a CONTEST.

Concerned Member | 2010/01/13

How can the NEA receive messages like the ones posted in this string and not respond to the membership? Every comment on this blog is against RTTT. A sound union seeks input from members - Please formally ask the members of the NEA how they feel about Race To the Top. Once the NEA has that data, please act on it.

Anita | 2009/12/27

I, for one, am considering cancelling my NEA membership. I cannot with a clear conscious, continue to give my hard-earned dollars to an organization that supports such stupid ideas. How about getting input from the teachers who are in the classroom? We can give you ideas that would help our schools. Race to the Top will pit teacher against teacher and will not create any sort of work environment that people will be willing to tolerate. Just wait....there will be a mass exodus of teachers if this gets initiated, and then what will they do? Somebody better start listening to the teachers.

Caryn Ciciora | 2009/12/27

Are we forgettig that we are teaching CHILDREN?? What has happened to childhood? It is getting lost in rigourous standards and making AYP! Have our leaders not noticed how this stress is beginning to effect our kids? NCLB need to be abolished, it has done absoulutely nothing to help our children. It is unrealistic to believe that all kids should be perfect! We need to stop this nonsense and save our kids. How about making parents accountable as well. When kids don't start school with the necessary skills, we teachers are constantly trying to play "catch up." Please, Mr. Obama stop it!

Nancy M. Pare | 2009/10/11

Sir, I was impressed with you at my first NEA RA in San Diego; but to support this blatant attempt by the administration to break unions by pitting state against state, district against district and teacher against teacher is wrong. NCLB is a design for failure; the bar is continually raised and the expectation for every child to be Perfect is not reasonable. Use your energy and our money to scrap NCLB before it is too Late!!!

Steve S | 2009/09/28

I think it is a mistake to go along with the "race to the top' mentality. It is using old, bad measurements (test scores) to justify program developments. We need to opt out of race to the top funding and say no thank you to Obama--go back to the drawing board and really look at the supposed success or Sec. Duncan's claims in Chicago and places he is touting as successful.

Carol | 2009/09/27

Julie, of 9/25, You expressed my sentiments better than I ever could. Thank you.

Tom | 2009/09/27

Race to the top now; Obama Brown shirts next? Before we know it, teachers will be teaching songs of Obama glory to Kindergarten children. Oh wait! They already started that in NJ!

Cathy | 2009/09/27

As an NEA member, I am appalled at the NEA's commitment to Obama's Race to the Top. The name itself leads anyone to believe that there must be a loser. As with any race, there can be only one winner. Who benefits or wins from that? Students? Teachers? The Community? States? Federal Government? Who, then, will be the losers? Students? Teachers? The Community? States? Federal Government? Listening to President Van Roeckel I felt that he (and NEA) wants to "be in the loop" with the new administration so much that he is willing to sell his members (and the students they represent) down the river. Please, stand for a better program. Fight for the people who are in the classrooms on a daily basis. Remember that we, the staff in the classrooms, are the ones most affected by the policies made in Congress. Listen to our voices.

Sean | 2009/09/26

It is sometimes hard to continue to be a member of NEA when they continue to support the corporatized version of public education. I did not become a teacher to be a Test Preparation Agent for the State, but that is exactly what Race to the Top does, moreso than even NCLB. It is bad for kids, and bad for public education.

MW | 2009/09/25

The government is wanting to have more power so that they can push their own educational agendas. They have specific topics and behaviors they want to force on America. It's slimy. I, for one, did NOT vote Democtrat! I was proud and bold with my choice then and I'm all the more solidified in my vote now!

Stephen P. Blum, Esq. | 2009/09/25

Good to know Dennis is as out of touch as the new president when it comes to education. Obama and Duncan's ideas are the same or worse than the previous administration's plan. The Race to the Top is guaranteed to leave many children behind and continue on the path towards vouchers. Charter schools run by outside agencies are nothing more than voucher schools in a clever disguise. Merit pay will hurt public schools in numerous ways. There is nothing to like about the new plan except some of the lofty goals. The solutions are all silly ideas that will not help, but waste time and money. I did not expect the new president to actually do much to help, but I did not expect NEA leadership to embrace his naïve notions. Wake up Dennis, get it right!

Julie | 2009/09/25

I am sorely disappointed NEA is taking this position. I personally believe we should abandon federal intrusion into our public schools. We will not achieve greater results with more federal tampering. I would like to see schools returned to local control, by those who KNOW the students they serve. I believe such a practice would permit greater flexibility and empower local schools and their teachers to be more innovative and responsive. Another issue that I rarely hear discussed is what, in my experience, amounts to an American passion for "more is better" and younger is even better. The content standards in California are so many and dense, teachers are hard-pressed to teach all of them before the STAR testing in the spring. Stopping to reteach or examine in depth precludes teaching all standards, there is not time. We teach a curriculum that is a mile wide and an inch deep. We wonder why many students are faring poorly. Many (most) other nations are willing to allow teachers to teach less, but to a greater degree of mastery. Our public educational system has been following misguided policies. Since the intrusion of the federal government into our day-to-day teaching, we are the victims more and more often of having to follow standards and curriculum created by nonteachers. We are simply not invited into the relevant discussions on educational practices, yet a number of economists and the like are. I suspect our media is selective in the voices and opinions it listens to and publishes. I think we must work, somehow, to get valid and relevant research about how children actually learn into the media. The research is out there, but often times even the folks in our business are not gaining access to it. Let's spend our time and resources wisely. Let's educate, not enable.

Marie Williams | 2009/09/25

Your opinion and support of this policy lays a faulty foundation on which the structure of education will fall. Every premise of this policy is flawed and leads to illogical conclusions. Competition--capitalism intruding on education. Save our children!!!!!!!!!

Sharon H. | 2009/09/25

You have got to be kidding. Why would NEA leadership justify a policy that will not raise student learning while at the same time demean the worth of educators by holding them solely accountable for student achievement. In the first place states should not have to compete for funds!!!!!! Schools should be funded to provide resources that are needed to address student needs. Teachers need to be competent and effective in their practice. They cannot under any circumstances be solely accountable for student progress. Where are parents, students, superintendents, administrators, school board members, and school board members in all of this. Why aren't systems and those runing those systems more accountable for not authentically supporting the work of teachers. Why isn't NEA openly opposing the faulty premises of this policy? You are leading us down the wrong path. Wake up!

I Called it in North Carolina | 2009/09/24

This what you all get for supporting a candidate who contiues to parrot the party line...and gets us no where. NEA-get out of the business of taking our hard-earned money that we pay in dues and using it to support candidates the majority does not support.

Karen West | 2009/09/24

Boy--you are the first one to so clearly express the problem. These tests are totally inappropriate. Yearly standardized tests is not new to education, but they were age appropriate. It makes you wonder why these tests are designed the way they are. I believe there is a serious hidden agenda to these tests. Why hasn't the design and contents of these tests been more rigorously challenged?

B. Howland | 2009/09/24

I think the NEA needs to look back at the history of merit pay in education in deciding whether or not "Race to the Top" is an appropriate future step. If one looks back, we see the state of Texas lauding their ability to acheive high test scores when other states were failing only to find upon investigation that many institutions and teachers were cheating to attain those results. Merit pay breeds cheating. I didn't enter education to get a big paycheck and I don't strive for excellence in my classroom in order to get a larger one. I do so as a matter of pride and integrity. Until our government as well as the NEA realizes the impossiblity of 100% proficiency of developmentally inappropriate standards, nobody will be receiving and pay worthy of merit.

Sonia Martin-Solis | 2009/09/24

President Van Rokel, I respect your opinion, but I fear that we are heading down the wrong path. I don't believe that we need to support Race To the Top UNTIL it is correct. Too often we support things so that we can "work with the author." After we have signed on, we will complain about how we weren't consulted and how we didn't agree with everything there but the reform went through anyway. Please send a clear message that we will not support this UNLESS it is truly what we want to see as the affected professionals!

Switzerland | 2009/09/24

I agree COMPLETELY with the post by A Concerned Educator! I teach how to see through propaganda and my eighth graders do a much better job than the NEA! Eating crow isn't so bad if you pour a little ketchup on it, eh!

A Concerned Educator | 2009/09/24

Despite being a member of NEA through my affiliation with my local chapter, I have always stood on the premise that the NEA should NEVER endorse a candidate for our nation's presidency simply because a significant proportion of the membership may not agree with the decision. Now the chickens are coming home to roost for the NEA, who is finding that Obama the President will do them much differently than Obama the candidate said he would! NEA leadership, it's time to stop soft-pedaling the criticism of President Obama and acknowledge the fact that you supported him and that you need to stand on the deck of that ship as proud deckhands as our public school system sinks under the weight of continued impossible standards. Don't shy from the fallout - own it, as we teachers tell our children to do in class, and face the fact that you supported a President (mostly on the basis of his political party affiliation, to be honest) who will continue the "business as usual" in education. The NEA has no one to blame but itself for refusing to endorse ANY candidate, and should take its just medicine for pandering to a political party and not having the good sense to know that NEITHER of the main parties in the U.S. at this point in our nation's history is concerned with anything other than self-propigation. "The NEA does not vote for MY president" rings true here.