TEACHERS CHEAT ... BECAUSE POLITICIANS FORCE THEM TO

Blog by  +Wanda Dorn                                #wandascafe

I implore Eric Holder, The Department of Justice and the ACLU to explore explore the possible discriminatory elements of the Atlanta Teachers' case:  I.e., the first teachers chosen to be charged on RICO “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization” "test-run" charges are minorities.  Everyone knows that's pause for cause. I believe had they jailed 33 White teachers under a new case-law experiment, this country would be up in arms.

Wanda Dorn   (official photo)
as School Board Candidate

As a former School Board Candidate, private school owner and teacher, my political campaign addressed teachers "Teaching to the Test", never would I have imagined that this country would jail teachers under RICO laws ... Equating them to “organized criminals”.  Quoting an article:  “A report shows student testing irregularities in D.C. under the leadership of Michelle Rhee star education reform advocate“... Why didn’t they consider charging her?  Why no charges in the Allen Texas cheating and nepotism scandal, the El Paso Texas cheating scandal, just to name a few who allegedly did the same thing? It has been reported that cheating of this same pattern has been found in over 40 states, yet no charges have been levied.

An article I read said "this is what happens when you 'dumb down' Black kids”.  Let me just dispel that ideology right now.  I know from personal observation and reading reports spanning from Texas to California, that White teachers teaching privileged White kids have been found doing the same thing.  If the article was written by a Black person, then he or she has been “dumbed down" by arrogance.  If it was written by a White person, then, they have been “dumbed down" by their attempt to be superior to others.

In the article there is reference to Asian kids being smart.  Remember, stereotypes go into the school system as well ... that’s racial profiling ... I often have to address this topic in my panel discussions, speeches and/or diversity trainings.  Last time I checked, there are more Black women with college degrees per capita than White males – chew on that!

Wanda (in white) campaign for School
Board and an award recipient and was 
endorsed as a candidate by her city's 
leading newspaper

Now let’s get to why politicians must take much of the responsibility for the failure of our school system, which is near the bottom of the food chain among developed countries. 

In early years, it was the teacher who was the most respected person in the community along with the doctors and ministers, especially true in the Black community.  Even out west, it was the school marm who was the most respected person in town.

In high school, I had a Russian teacher who told us students, that in her country, students could not enter the classroom until the teacher had entered, and the students could not exit until after the teacher had exited, and that teachers were the highest paid and most respected people in the country because "It takes a teacher to become a doctor, lawyer ... or even a politician".

Politicians must take Responsibility
It was not until politicians in the early 90’s found education an easy target to hang their election hats on, therefore, the people who care for our children became the country's culprits.  Politicians found every education angle to campaign on.  When quotas were no longer an effective platform, they found charter schools, teacher credentials, and other campaign rhetoric to benefit their agendas. 

The majority of politicians and persons who are administering school mandates have never been teachers nor school administrators.  If you’ve never been a doctor, how can you tell the hospital how doctors should carry out their work?

Then came the “before” Obama Administration, who came up with forced teaching-to-the-test in their “No Child Left Behind” fiascos, which lead to where we are today ... jailing teachers.  There became a time when teachers had to just forget teaching-to-their-curriculum and follow the dictates of their school administrators so as not to loose their jobs.  Administrators had to become oppressive and punitive to their teaching staff so the State wouldn’t take away their school and "close the school  down".  With all this, we are still at the bottom of the education food chain.

We must remember why public schools were started:  to guarantee every child the right to go to school.  Before public schools, only the privileged attended school while the underprivileged worked.  

After the system was in place, "classism" found a way to segregate, rendering the underprivileged to a form of under-education and miseducation, but that was better than no education at all, because the Black Teachers cared about their Black students.  Even today, the traditionally Black college professors care about their students.  Many Black college graduates say they would like to have spent at least one semester at a Black college.

Charter schools, and now teaching-to-the-test that the politicians put into place are national and taxpayer dollars failures.  I ask any one who sends their child to charter schools:

• How many teachers have credentials.  Only the head administrator is required to be.
• How many millions has the “owner” of the school personally made since their school opened. 
• How many public school administrators have to approve of and oversee their curriculum.  Charter schools are required to get the approval and curriculum from the local public school.  While that school administrator(s) is working with the charter school, how much of our tax dollars are being spent.  If these administrators can oversee the charter school and it’s curriculum, why can’t that administrator instead be working with and/or creating a “magnet” or charter school environment within the public schools.  Why should we tax-fund charter schools in any way shape or form.
• How much money do public schools loose when our tax dollar-funded charter school takes a student from the public school.  The public school is funded based on the number of students attending ... the public school loose money.
• How many students have your charter school turned away and not allowed them to enter because they chose to.  How many students have been “put out of their school” because (as it has been reported) “they just don’t like the student”, or “the student is not achieving” ... the public schools are not allowed to make arbitrary decisions as to why a student can’t attend its schools.  Teachers are not allowed to put a student out of class for more than three days for disciplinary problems.
• How is it that the charter schools are much more ethnically segregated than public schools?  Why -  Because the privileged have found yet another way to keep privileged kids in separate (not equal) schools. 

Politicians and all Americans - Respect our teachers! Stay out of the classroom and allow teachers and administrators to do their jobs so they can return to teaching-to-the-curriculum and not to the test.  These testing requirements should be abolished or amended.

Politicians - do what you do best - look into the matter and help teachers bring our schools from the bottom of the food chain to the top ... you can do it!