Tenure = Due Process, Not Lifetime Employment

Some might say that this battle is over. I'll go out on a limb and make a prediction. When beloved teachers start losing their jobs because the Smarter Balance / Common Core test scores force them out you will see a backlash against rating teachers based on student test scores and a move toward greater job security.

Student Data

Meet The New School Board

For those of you who do not know, ALEC is the American Legislative Exchange Council. It provides conservative legislators with model legislation in support of conservative priorities. Educationally speaking this means charters, online schools, Right To Work, testing, no tenure, evaluations tied to student test scores, etc. These reforms do not stand on their own as good ideas, but have the incentives of providing profit and/or power to their proponents.

David and Charles Koch fund this assault on public education out of their 50+ billion dollars in assets. Their foundations spend $200 million dollars annually promoting their agenda. This is less than one half of one percent, by the way.

The reason I bring this up now is an article that reveals the following:

They have also collaborated on the annual ALEC education “report card” that grades states’ allegiance to their policy agenda higher than actual student performance. That distorted report card also rewards states that push ALEC’s beloved union-busting measures while giving low grades to states with students who actually perform best on standardized knowledge tests.

They reward legislators who adhere to their agenda with funding and threaten them with more conservative primary challengers if they don't regardless of how students actually perform. This is about power. They don't need the money.

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Education reform is a house of cards or a mortarless brick wall. Pick your metaphor. The very data the reformers are counting on to kill public education will be their own undoing. Tony Bennett headed education for Indiana and then Florida until he resigned recently over a scandal from his time in Indiana. Specifically, inflating the scores of his flagship charter school in Indiana. Criticism based on the reality of school reform is coming from the left (middle really) and the right, but not about Michelle Rhee, yet.

Real Education Reform

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Reformers Behind the Curtain

I hate to use this image because he was a good man, just a very poor wizard. I don't know if we can say the same of the school reformers and legislators and governors working against public education. Even if we assume they are well intentioned, but mistaken they do seem immune to facts.

Bolderapproach.org has an interesting study. If you know in your heart that the reformers are on the wrong track, but don't have the details this study is worth the time to read.

Back in Business

The education reformers continue to press their case that public education is failing and privatization, vouchers and charters will save America's kids. However, the more their policies go into effect the more difficult it is for them to hide behind their marketing. Not just teachers, but the public is beginning to see the effects of their policies.

Diane Ravitch joins the Badass Teachers Association. Consider joining their Facebook page or go to their blog.

Update: Or read about them in the Washington Post.