Old Bob Bennett's Chickens Come Home to Roost in Tonawanda

Old Bob Spins a few Whoppers for the Proles

Well, well, well, a day of action it was. Old Bob Bennett cleared out of his castle on the advice of his court advisors so he wouldn't have to countenance the indignity of parents and teachers parading past in protest of his manifest failures as a Regent. Old Bob is a real piece of work. He has seen his puppet John King pantsed, swirlied, wedgied and dissed in everyplace from Jamestown to Poughkeepsie. Instead of acknowledging the hammering King has absorbed and the uproar and outrage he and his fellows have created, OB attempts to marginalize parents and teachers, painting himself and King as misunderstood prophets in the wilderness. They are not prophets and this in no wilderness. In Jamestown, 35 of 40 speakers told him his policies were failures and Common Core is making kids and teachers both hate school. Bennett tried to dismiss their message by calling them a "vocal minority." Tonight as he was whining to a t.v. news reporter by phone Bennett again tried to backhand the majority and marginalize their legitimate complaints by saying "Oh that's just the noisy ones..." He then went on to describe a little dog and pony show that some classrooms performed for him and King in Jamestown claiming the thing is a hit and it's catching on like wildfire. Ahem. I was only half surprised he didn't use the phrase "23 skiddoo" or refer to CCSS as "the bees knees" and tell us "all the kids are doing it!"  

At this point we arrive at one of the great lies put forth by Common Corons. Bennett in his snivel to the t.v. reporter claimed Common Core demands the following:

• Better Teaching
• More Work
• More Cooperation with Parents

I'd like to step back for a second here friends and ask how a former political hack who shilled for County Executives and Mayors of Buffalo, parlayed his connections into a CEO gig at United Way until he wheezed into retirement only to re-emerge as some Educational Deity of the Regents has a fucking clue in the world what 'Better Teaching" looks like especially when compared to teaching that is all ready taking place. Ahhh but I am being naive here aren't I? The real point of claiming Common Core requires "better teaching" is to slam teachers by implying that what they are all ready doing isn't as special as what David fucking Coleman and his merry band of Core Creators have cooked up -- in spite of the fact that nobody would hire his creepy fiveheaded ass to teach for them. So Old Bob repeats the oft trotted out prevarication that teachers don't like Common Core because they like the status quo and between them and their unions we'd never go forward without the brave new world of Common Core and right minded thinkers like himself. 

Common Core Wankertect David Coleman

Secondly, Old Bob trots out yet another favorite of the teacher hating crowd, namely, that Common Core is so chock full of "rigor" it's going to make those part time employees with weekends off and summers on the French Riviera actually get off their iphones and get to work. Yeah Bob, you nailed it. We got into this gig for the sweet perks, the downtime spent screwing around in between classes of 32 freshmen English students. Damn, this guy is sharp huh? To fill out the trifecta of Old Bob's insult he implies teachers aren't doing enough to make parents happy. We need to start listening to them and working with them. I'll pause a second while the Cyclopean irony of that statement sinks in. Yeah, Bob, some of us were marching in front of your house with parents today because many of them don't think you are worth a shit as a public servant. That's because you aren't worth a shit as a public servant. You serve the corporate interests of your CEO pals, of Pearson, of Bill Gates and Bloomie and every other hack with more money than decency who has figured out that turning public education into a market will create huge profits for a few even if the product is a piece of shit. Mass produced corporate products often are shit but quality isn't job one, profit is. And that, Old Bob is where you fall of the shit wagon and into the goo with all of your scumbag friends who are trying soooo desperately to dress this money grab up into something noble and rigorous. Your cause is rigorously deceitful and your objectives are rigorously despicable Old Bob. 

And to make matters even more disingenuous and phoney our sources tell us NYSED friendly/Teacher hostile Sammy the Moocher Radford the titular head of the DPCC (which represents Radford and about 7 other parents)  has been allotted 50 of the 300 tickets to the farcical kabuki they plan to orchestrate over at WNED studios. Sammy will have his anti teacher, anti union homies 50 deep all up in there spreading the illusion that King and Old Bob have widespread parent and community support.  Should be pretty funny with Radford and his crew stuck in the role of supporting "The Man" for the sake of political expediency. If anything ever smacked or stunk worse of "The Man" than this corporate driven pile of shit we call Common Core I would love to know what it was.  So this angry black man of the people, so called, can get up there and marvel at John King and Old Bob's liberation theology of Common Core by way of Pearson and Bill Gates. And when it's all over I wonder of he's going to be happy about throwing his support to The Man where everyone could see it and everyone could wonder just what exactly is his game anyway? Cause it's obvious he has one. You'd really have to wonder how every single community in New York State had parents and teachers overwhelmingly up in arms against this totalitarian bullshit being inflicted on our kids and schools but for some odd reason this angry dude in the fine suit from Buffalo thinks it's all that and a bag of Buffalo chips. It strains credulity, no? Oh and there's a counter protest competing in the same time slot as that promises to be a lot more lively than this dirge. More on that to come.