Poor old George W. Bush couldn't get it right
So let's skip it and use Henry David Thoreau instead. The bearded one who unintentionally started a grass fire and burnt down half of Concord woods then went into hiding at Walden Pond in atonement managed to get it right when he issued this statement on the nature of do-gooders : "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life."
What we have here in B-Lo allegedly, according to Mr. Morgulis' famous t shirt anyway, the City of No Illusions is a case of de ja va all over again in the form of a Quadzillionaire "do gooder" named Robert Wilmers CEO and Chief Executive 1%er at M&T Bank Inc. Last we saw of Bordeaux Bob -- like many of my readers Bobbie Socks owns a chateau and a vineyard in that region of France -- he was offering to pay for the Superintendent search that brought James Williams, aka Jimmy da Pimp, J Dubz, Educational Ebola Virus Ed.D. to the Queen City. Wilmers conned the dopes on the Board of Ed, several of whom are still taking up space there, into letting him pick out the New Guy. So Wilmers googled "Union Busting Scumbag" and voila ! The rest is history. As the wheels came off the Williams regime, graduation rates of black males dipped, Williams threatened to kick BTF President Phil Rumore's ass, after Phil left the room of course. Williams his own self escorted a gang of thugs back into a building where they'd attacked another kid and injured a teacher. J Dubz gave each of them his own cell number with orders to call if any adults were mean to them. Yeah, remember that one? And The local media gave Williams and especially Wilmers a free pass. Possibly because Wilmers and the Buffalo News publisher at the time were tennis club or Harvard pals ? In spite of Williams track record for destruction at his last job in Dayton Ohio, leaving an $18 million dollar debt nobody knew about, a provoked strike, charters started and abandoned all over the city, morale decimated and of course kids bearing the brunt of all his egomaniacal bullshit. Were we supposed to think Wilmers didn't know any of this ? Of course he knew it and he knew the damage Williams would do to our kids and out schools here too. But he would never send his kids to one of these schools anyway so why would he care? Williams performed exactly as he was expected to and created chaos and destruction but failed in his real mission to break the teacher's union. He destroyed morale and privatized an alternative school that wasn't broken in the first place and by the time his pals from Baltimore were done they'd fleeced us for $7 million and left in the middle of the night taking all of their wrong software and computers with them leaving teachers a week or so before Christmas high and dry. Absolutely criminal but they have never been held accountable for the damage they inflicted on our city's most at risk kids. If there's any bright side a lot of the kids figured out they were being warehoused and simply quit coming. Wilmers picked out Williams and sicced him on us and our students in the hope that Williams could destroy the union and the whole mess could be bulldozed and charterized FOR A PROFIT.
And from what someone told Dr. Pamela Brown Teach for America has a stellar nationwide reputation. Oh yeah the Waltons, Gates's, Broads and their billionaire ilk have all suffered the same case of Priapism as the neo liberal politicians and the Hedge Fund heavy Democrats for Ed Reform. This billionaire funded edu tourism club has so many millions coming out its ears they simply ooze excellence. Oh but then there are those cranky education people like Diane Ravitch who go and point out the shortcomings of this heavily funded Disney Ride for rich kids. And just the other day Salon.com came along and pointed out some more of the unexcellence that seems to flow from this astroturf for dilettantes club. And then the New York Times comes along and offers even more testimony on the reformy non vigor and quick fixiness of WTFA. And anyone who REALLY wants to hear about this crew can pick from several hundred testimonials of how TFA crushed the life out of them and made them want to quit teaching. Just for kicks here's a brief selection from one former TFAer :
During Institute, TFA’s five-week Teacher Bootcamp, there was a rumor going around that TFA chose its corps members for their “Grit,” a thinly veiled code for “masochism.” This made sense to me: I knew I had gotten in when I told my interviewer that I “volunteered in war zones” and her eyes widened with glee; my decision to return for a second year must have been driven, in whole or in part, by this tendency to put myself on trial by fire. It had very little to do with the students—not because I didn’t care about their futures but because I had so little confidence in my teaching abilities that I doubted my presence in the classroom would make any kind of difference in their lives. But I needed to prove to myself that I wasn’t beaten yet.
And whaddya know but this same bluenose do gooder, possibly feeling some Thoreau like pangs of remorse from his self indulgent conspicuous displays and conspicuous consumptions has resurfaced. He is, of course, unrepentant for the damage his previous experiment in venture philanthropy wrought on the kids of Buffalo. Better yet he's back and whispering in the ear of Dr. Pamela Brown and she, unlike the guy in the saying, is eager to hear more about Wilmer's peculiar brand of Trojan Horse do gooderism. He is trying to open the door for the shock troops of charterization also known as TFA or Teach for America but commonly known by real teachers as WTFA and Teach Until Law School. These venerable do gooders from all the better schools, thus their superior intellects and excellence, undergo an entire 5 weeks of training over the summer and are turned loose in schools unlike any they have ever set foot in. If your kid's Spanish teacher is really certified to teach French or Italian, the school is legally obliged to send a letter home explaining to the parents that the kid is being taught by an uncertified teacher. How are parents going to respond when they learn that their kid's teacher has a whopping 5 weeks of education training under their belt? And how does our venture philanthropist Mr. Wilmers explain his latest offering of side door charterization to these same parents without ever apologizing for the widescale destruction his last contribution left behind ? According to the Buffalo News, Phil Rumore is ok with allowing this sideshow into our schools. Dr. Pamela Brown has openly professed her glee with inviting them to prop open the doors for the likes of the Chamelons and any other hometown reptilian for profit gang of union busting profiteers. I hope someone is kind enough to share some harsh reality of the likely destructive consequences of this ill advised maneuver. Before Wilmers offers us any more of his viruses he needs to make a public apology for the last attack he waged on our students and our schools. Some people have chateaus, sailboats and Italian loafers but not a drop of class or decency. Step up and apologize Bob then we will explain why your latest brainstorm is a little more than another brainfart from another 1%er who simply can't resist trying to break up a union.
I'll probably be hearing from Damon and Morey or some other 1%er law firm with orders to stop harassing their benevolent and caring billionaire. Until then the truth hurts even when you're loaded. And Dr. Brown, Phil Rumore, Board of Ed members, let's take a page from Thoreau and Run for our lives.
So let's skip it and use Henry David Thoreau instead. The bearded one who unintentionally started a grass fire and burnt down half of Concord woods then went into hiding at Walden Pond in atonement managed to get it right when he issued this statement on the nature of do-gooders : "If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life."
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| http://mmorgulis.artspan.com/ |
What we have here in B-Lo allegedly, according to Mr. Morgulis' famous t shirt anyway, the City of No Illusions is a case of de ja va all over again in the form of a Quadzillionaire "do gooder" named Robert Wilmers CEO and Chief Executive 1%er at M&T Bank Inc. Last we saw of Bordeaux Bob -- like many of my readers Bobbie Socks owns a chateau and a vineyard in that region of France -- he was offering to pay for the Superintendent search that brought James Williams, aka Jimmy da Pimp, J Dubz, Educational Ebola Virus Ed.D. to the Queen City. Wilmers conned the dopes on the Board of Ed, several of whom are still taking up space there, into letting him pick out the New Guy. So Wilmers googled "Union Busting Scumbag" and voila ! The rest is history. As the wheels came off the Williams regime, graduation rates of black males dipped, Williams threatened to kick BTF President Phil Rumore's ass, after Phil left the room of course. Williams his own self escorted a gang of thugs back into a building where they'd attacked another kid and injured a teacher. J Dubz gave each of them his own cell number with orders to call if any adults were mean to them. Yeah, remember that one? And The local media gave Williams and especially Wilmers a free pass. Possibly because Wilmers and the Buffalo News publisher at the time were tennis club or Harvard pals ? In spite of Williams track record for destruction at his last job in Dayton Ohio, leaving an $18 million dollar debt nobody knew about, a provoked strike, charters started and abandoned all over the city, morale decimated and of course kids bearing the brunt of all his egomaniacal bullshit. Were we supposed to think Wilmers didn't know any of this ? Of course he knew it and he knew the damage Williams would do to our kids and out schools here too. But he would never send his kids to one of these schools anyway so why would he care? Williams performed exactly as he was expected to and created chaos and destruction but failed in his real mission to break the teacher's union. He destroyed morale and privatized an alternative school that wasn't broken in the first place and by the time his pals from Baltimore were done they'd fleeced us for $7 million and left in the middle of the night taking all of their wrong software and computers with them leaving teachers a week or so before Christmas high and dry. Absolutely criminal but they have never been held accountable for the damage they inflicted on our city's most at risk kids. If there's any bright side a lot of the kids figured out they were being warehoused and simply quit coming. Wilmers picked out Williams and sicced him on us and our students in the hope that Williams could destroy the union and the whole mess could be bulldozed and charterized FOR A PROFIT.
And from what someone told Dr. Pamela Brown Teach for America has a stellar nationwide reputation. Oh yeah the Waltons, Gates's, Broads and their billionaire ilk have all suffered the same case of Priapism as the neo liberal politicians and the Hedge Fund heavy Democrats for Ed Reform. This billionaire funded edu tourism club has so many millions coming out its ears they simply ooze excellence. Oh but then there are those cranky education people like Diane Ravitch who go and point out the shortcomings of this heavily funded Disney Ride for rich kids. And just the other day Salon.com came along and pointed out some more of the unexcellence that seems to flow from this astroturf for dilettantes club. And then the New York Times comes along and offers even more testimony on the reformy non vigor and quick fixiness of WTFA. And anyone who REALLY wants to hear about this crew can pick from several hundred testimonials of how TFA crushed the life out of them and made them want to quit teaching. Just for kicks here's a brief selection from one former TFAer :
During Institute, TFA’s five-week Teacher Bootcamp, there was a rumor going around that TFA chose its corps members for their “Grit,” a thinly veiled code for “masochism.” This made sense to me: I knew I had gotten in when I told my interviewer that I “volunteered in war zones” and her eyes widened with glee; my decision to return for a second year must have been driven, in whole or in part, by this tendency to put myself on trial by fire. It had very little to do with the students—not because I didn’t care about their futures but because I had so little confidence in my teaching abilities that I doubted my presence in the classroom would make any kind of difference in their lives. But I needed to prove to myself that I wasn’t beaten yet.
And whaddya know but this same bluenose do gooder, possibly feeling some Thoreau like pangs of remorse from his self indulgent conspicuous displays and conspicuous consumptions has resurfaced. He is, of course, unrepentant for the damage his previous experiment in venture philanthropy wrought on the kids of Buffalo. Better yet he's back and whispering in the ear of Dr. Pamela Brown and she, unlike the guy in the saying, is eager to hear more about Wilmer's peculiar brand of Trojan Horse do gooderism. He is trying to open the door for the shock troops of charterization also known as TFA or Teach for America but commonly known by real teachers as WTFA and Teach Until Law School. These venerable do gooders from all the better schools, thus their superior intellects and excellence, undergo an entire 5 weeks of training over the summer and are turned loose in schools unlike any they have ever set foot in. If your kid's Spanish teacher is really certified to teach French or Italian, the school is legally obliged to send a letter home explaining to the parents that the kid is being taught by an uncertified teacher. How are parents going to respond when they learn that their kid's teacher has a whopping 5 weeks of education training under their belt? And how does our venture philanthropist Mr. Wilmers explain his latest offering of side door charterization to these same parents without ever apologizing for the widescale destruction his last contribution left behind ? According to the Buffalo News, Phil Rumore is ok with allowing this sideshow into our schools. Dr. Pamela Brown has openly professed her glee with inviting them to prop open the doors for the likes of the Chamelons and any other hometown reptilian for profit gang of union busting profiteers. I hope someone is kind enough to share some harsh reality of the likely destructive consequences of this ill advised maneuver. Before Wilmers offers us any more of his viruses he needs to make a public apology for the last attack he waged on our students and our schools. Some people have chateaus, sailboats and Italian loafers but not a drop of class or decency. Step up and apologize Bob then we will explain why your latest brainstorm is a little more than another brainfart from another 1%er who simply can't resist trying to break up a union.
I'll probably be hearing from Damon and Morey or some other 1%er law firm with orders to stop harassing their benevolent and caring billionaire. Until then the truth hurts even when you're loaded. And Dr. Brown, Phil Rumore, Board of Ed members, let's take a page from Thoreau and Run for our lives.
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