Tag: education reform

NO Suzanne Dale Estey for Michael Debell’s open School Board Seat

NO Suzanne Dale Estey for Michael Debell’s open School Board Seat !!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been a high school math teacher at Franklin High in Seattle for 7 years, and when I look at the different lists of Ms. Estey’s supporters, I cringe.  http://suzanne4schools.com/ind…

I am very liberal socially. I’ve been a lowly grunt in a lot of local, state and national campaigns over the decades. Among her supporters are many who I’ve voted for, campaigned with and spoken with over those decades. Her supporters labeled “Elected Officials” have done little or nothing to really change the game over the decades, despite earning leader paychecks. For decades the game has been misinformation and lies against community investment by the Ronald Reagans, Newt Gingrichs, Tim Eymans and Rodney Toms. The game has been compromise after compromise with the Rodneys and the Reagans, accompanied by excuse after excuse for the compromises, and cumulating with more time at the trough of 6 figure a year salaries for those “leaders” making the compromises and the excuses. In a compromise, aren’t we supposed to get something we wanted, instead of getting less of something worse?

Some of her supporters are Seattle School Board members who supported Maria Goodloe Johnson’s deformer policies with vote after vote. How much good did the slick sound bites of her deformer policies do for those of us actually working with kids?  One of those policies is evaluating teachers by the junk “science” of student test scores, or “Valued Added Measures” (VAM).  For those of you without math or science backgrounds, VAM isn’t junk because I’m a loud mouth and because I don’t like it, it is junk because real scientists say it isn’t valid. (google “John Ewing VAM”). Why are deformer policies loaded with consultants, sound bites and teacher blaming?

25 years ago I was cooking in Boston, and 10 years ago I left Microsoft after being a serf for 5 years. I’ve seen family wage jobs and middle income careers outsourced and sold out with compromise after compromise, excuse after excuse. The deformers talk a great game about helping the kids, and their results are going to be a bunch of junk-mart schools staffed with adults too terrified or cowed to stand up to their junk-mart bosses.  When it comes time to vote, if you consider Suzanne Estey because I’m an unhinged arm waving loudmouth – fine!

I’ll be voting for Sue Peters for School Board.  

http://seattleducation2010.wor…