B-Lo's Test and Punish Chernobyl, April 2016

Run DPCC, Gaseous Clay and HairGel dude repping Da Tests for some bullshit Bill Gates Astro Turf

Here in B-Lo it appears the forces of corporate ed reform have reached DEFCON 1. I looked it up on the chart and here's what that means: "Hair fully engulfed in flames, pants shat in and likewise ablaze. Victim running in tight circles, inchoate speech with drool present." Nowhere is the uproar more strident or hilarious than the frantic squealing of ed reform hogs to be heard emanating from The Buffalo News editorial bunker. 

Listen:

• In the span of several days they've run  an ed piece claiming the tests are all fixed and we all desperately need the data. The fact that the last data showed marked improvements in receivership schools yet Cuomo and Elia seem to think these improved schools need to remain in the hands of receivers all the same seems to have escaped the intrepid opinionistas hunkered down in the basement of One News Plaza. 
• The News also ran a wacky tag team article composed by the combined wits of Ed Reform Rappers Run DPCC (feat. Sam Radford and Jayson Zwara aka Jay Zee of BuffaloDeformEd) who teamed up to tell Betty Rosa she sould support their Shut Up and Take the Test campaign. We saw another editorial moaning about Opt Out keeping schools from knowing how bad they really suck.  
• #CorporateEdReformLivesMatter activist Rod Watson made a flaccid attempt at comedy where he proposed to Opt Out of work by writing a  madcap letter to the paper's publisher Warren Buffet -- a billionaire with investments in corporate ed reform -- which pretty much unfunnies the hell out of Rod's attempt at doing schtick -- And in a classic case of Ed Reform cluelessness he includes a "response" from Buffet who (unfunnily) proposes to contact Bill Gates to rent Woodstock and try to soothe all of the hurt feelings etc. caused by the test and punish regimen. Too bad this moron doesn't grasp that he's pretty much confirmed what we all knew already namely that people like Gates and Buffet really do think they run the world and can manipulate the small people into doing their will. And in trying to be funny Watson merely shows his ignorance and contempt for the legitimate acts of Civil Disobedience inspired by the Opt Out movement. He also shows himself to be a suckling lapdog for his corporate masters and a pathetic coward in the face of corporate bullying of parents and kids.  
• We've also seen a robocall and a snotty, misleading letter to parents from BPS  rockstar Principal Willliam Kresse who describes kids and parents opting out as "cowering from a reasonable challenge." Surely it hasn't crossed the good doctor's mind that the people caving in to his bullying and bullshitting about all the swell test improvements are the ones cowering while those who oppose him and all of his connections (Papa K. and the Wendt Foundation etc.) will be remembered as the true heroes when the smoke of the battle for public education clears.  
• Oh but there's more... One B-lo school planned a test prep pep rally for last Friday which I can only hope went better than the one in Florida where the fire eater started his face on fire for hundreds of horrified kids and adults. 
• And in another school kids who'd been opted out had tests put in front of them and their parents called and bullied into reversing their decision and agreeing to have the kids tested. Did I mention these were mainly parents of limited English proficiency -- you know, the ones that are easily intimidated and bullied? Very classy that. 
• In at least one other school, pizza parties were used to bribe kids into participating in the April Foolishness. 
• And at #43 a City Hall, a Central Office suit was dispatched to investigate the high number of sane parents and kids there who just said no to mandated child abuse. My high school friends from Lovejoy who went to Forty Tree woulda lumped the guy so it's prolly good they weren't around. 
• And then there's the subject of my last post the Assistant Principal who told parents Opting Out is illegal. 
• Wait we're not done here folks, Deliverance had a lot less squeal than corporate ed reform's hogs of April are putting up about now. Regentus Flatulentus Gasser Bennett was extracted from a shuffleboard court in Boynton Beach- he looks like he needs a higher SPF -- and trotted out for a pic with Run DPCC Sam and some dweeb with hair gel calling themselves High Achievement NY to bang the drum for their disingenuous Opt In message. 

I can't ever recall writing a post with so many links embedded in it and I try not to do this as I know it can get tedious jumping back and forth and being distracted by 20 pics that look like porn but aren't links and news stories about 18 yr olds from Hutch Tech running against Carl Paladino saying the Board needs some adult behavior and Carl is not the guy to deliver it. 

The point is though that I am not just flinging April snowballs in B-Lo at people I don't like. This shit can be documented and it's happening all over the place. In spite of the ugliness, the cheap shots and low blows employed by the corporate ed reform camp, I have to believe they are feeling the pinch and acting out of desperation. These mofos have had it their way so long with practically zero resistance it's kind of fun to see them squirm when faced with a fair fight. They are clearly not up for one and clearly unable to take the shit they've been dishing out against teachers, kids and parents for far too long. This is not the time to take out foot off the gas or our boot off their necks. Refuse, Refuse, Refuse. It's the only weapon we have and it's working.