I just got another robo-call from the LAUSD. It was the same one I got two weeks ago that said this:
Good evening. This is Michelle King, Senior Deputy Superintendent of LAUSD. I’m calling to announce the launch of an exciting new LAUSD contest called The 2012 Bright Idea Challenge. What’s your bright idea that can help LAUSD save money, resources, and time? We believe some of the best ideas come from the classroom, faculty lounge, parent centers, and homes of our students and employees. So with that in mind, we want to hear your ideas on how the district can save money. And more importantly, we want to reward you and the school of your choice. The 2012 Bright Idea Challenge runs from now through May 11 and is open to all LAUSD students, employees, and parents. The contestants whose ideas get the most votes in the students, employees, and parent categories will receive trophies, recognition, and the opportunity to choose an LAUSD school to receive $3,000 towards the purchase of educational equipment, supplies, or materials. Submit your idea now at mybrightidea.lausd.net and share your thoughts with us as we follow the My Bright Idea Challenge on facebook/losangelesschools and on twitter @LASchools. Don’t delay. We’re only taking submissions until May 11. Visit mybrightidea.lausd.net and click on the “submit your idea” button. Thank you.
This is the first time in my 16-year teaching career at LAUSD that I’ve EVER been asked my opinion. EVER.
You’d think after using the ‘Sink or Swim Method of Creating Successful Teachers’ they might ask about my mad teaching skills but, sadly, I’ve learned, they don’t care. And I’ve certainly never been offered a trophy when I successfully taught the 14-year-old-drug-addicted-gangsta AND his baby momma to write a five paragraph essay.
Instead, I was made to attend professional development meetings where poorly researched ideas about small learning communities were forced on me. At the time, I wasn’t sure why the LAUSD spent all those years implementing an idea that no one seemed to believe in, but now I know that in doing so, they received hundreds of millions of dollars from the Gates Foundation.
I don’t have a problem with prostitution, but If you’re going to whore me out and call it “Professional Development” at least be honest about it. And maybe kick down a pizza.
At my school the SLC debacle looked like this: teachers spent thousands of collective hours creating curriculum that was never used, counselors were given ridiculous amounts of extra work to try and smash a puzzle piece into a space where it didn’t fit, a few offices got painted, and LAUSD’s entire system of teacher seniority was turned on its head.
SLCs failed (students didn’t learn any more than before, drop-out rates didn’t decrease) but no one ever said anything about it. Not even, “sorry for wasting your time.” SLCs simply disappeared.
It seemed as if those hundreds of millions of dollars from Gates were wasted, but he’s not a stupid man. He got exactly what he wanted: to tear apart our union.
The Bright Idea robo-call that I got tonight smelled of Gates and his billionaire boyfriends, so I went to the LAUSD website. In fine print way down at the bottom, it states that the monetary awards are donated by the Wasserman Foundation.
The Gates Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Wasserman Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation are investing heavily in the destruction of public schools and teachers unions in order to promote their for-profit agenda. They are social engineers who fund media outlets and politicians in order to mass manipulate public perception. They pay the salaries of 80% of LAUSD’s upper echelon administrators which means that the relentless assault on public school teachers is coming from the inside and out.
The crazy conclusion that I am able to draw is this: The Wasserman Foundation, which is partially responsible for the current destruction of public education, is now asking the people it’s trying to destroy for ideas on how to save money.
Seriously? You’re going to rob me, then ask me to clip coupons for you? And give me a fucking trophy if I do a good job?
Does asking for teachers’ opinions after mainstreaming negative propaganda that devalues us make the Billionaire Boys Club feel better? Does it justify their attack on public education? Can they sleep better at night on their thousand-count Egyptian cotton sheets, threaded with 22-carat gold?
They’ve already forced my colleagues, who have devoted their lives to teaching inner-city kids, to re-apply for their jobs at charter schools that have no unions. And even though their charter school agenda is doing nothing in terms of improving education, they’ll now be able to fire senior teachers and replace them with lower paid automatons or educational software.
Clearly, Wasserman, you don’t need my ideas on how to save money. Your think tank is on it.
But I have to say, tonight, when I saw that number on my phone and I answered that second robo-call, I felt like a teenage girl struggling with the frustration of unrequited love: “Why, LAUSD, did you finally reach out to me, only to ask such a selfish and irrelevant question? It’s the first thing in 16 years, that you’ve ever wanted to know about me. And your question implies my strong pedagogical foundation is superfluous. Can’t you, LAUSD, just for a moment, notice how great I am?”
The good news is, I’m not that teenage girl. I have no hope that the LAUSD will be able to stop looking through Wasserman colored glasses long enough to see the importance of good teachers. In fact, good teachers have become the enemy of current political and economic educational agendas. Good teachers want to talk about teaching and learning. Wasserman, Gates and their bros want to talk about money. And I can’t support that.
Y’all can keep your trophy.
