February 24, 2010 5:07 PM

Obama Official Applauds Rhode Island Teacher Firings

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
In The News
(CBS)
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has "applauded" the move to fire every teacher at Rhode Island's Central Falls High School, the Providence Journal reports.

Central Falls, the smallest and poorest city in Rhode Island, is also one of the state's most troubled school districts, with more than half of the students at the high school not making it to graduation.

Union members are fighting for the teachers' jobs, arguing that the move to fire the school's 70-plus teachers will harm students. George Nee, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said at a rally Tuesday that the action was "immoral, illegal, unjust, irresponsible, disgraceful and disrespectful," according to the Journal.

But Duncan says that education officials are "showing courage and doing the right thing for kids."

In order to remain eligible for a portion of financial aid, the Central Falls district had to either come up with a strategy to improve with its existing teaching staff or start from scratch. After negotiations collapsed amid a dispute over how much teachers would be paid for working more hours, officials opted for the latter.

Duncan has mandated that each state's worst performing schools either be closed, converted to charter or charter-like schools, reorganized around a longer school day, or have the entire teaching staff fired. In the last case, a maximum of 50 percent can be rehired in the fall.

"This is hard work and these are tough decisions, but students only have one chance for an education," Duncan said, adding that "when schools continue to struggle we have a collective obligation to take action."

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by ray190cs March 1, 2011 7:02 PM EST
Would you buy this product it takes 13 + years to manufactuer at a cost of around $65,000 and has a 50 to 75% failure rate.
Hold on before your react No nationwide recalls on this product.
If this was an Auto maker they would be out of business or infront of congress.
This is public education where the best teacher teach the best students and have the gaul to take credit for these top students that would preform well in the total absents of public eduation.
Teachers signatures need to follow all their students the same way my name is on every item I make and any failure is tracked back to me.
And if the failure rate is high for a teacher they need to be stripped of all teaching credientials
Reply to this comment
by tipper111 March 1, 2011 9:31 PM EST
Sir, if you are given defective materials with which to create your products you're going to have a high failure rate.

There is often little emphasis on learning or education in the US (just read the comments here on how few can spell or properly compose a sentence) unlike in the homogenous countries to which the US is often compared such as S. Korea, Japan and Norway. In those countries students are not distracted by clubs and sports. They go to school to learn, often six days a week. The parents spend extra money to send their students to school every night, often until 9 or 10 p.m., with students even returning home at midnight in South Korea and China. The parents foot that bill b/c getting a good education is of paramount importance. Students in the US will NEVER compete on that level until the American people take responsibility for their children's learning and stop pointing the finger.
by kendallnm February 25, 2011 7:37 PM EST
Did you consider what will happen if those teachers did not to return? Why treat them so harshly by firing good and bad teachers? Who will educate YOUR children? Let us remember that public education reflects the good and bad of the PUBLIC. Blind, cripple, crazy, rich, poor, English speaking (or not)....public school teachers educate all---when other schools (in and outside this country) will not.

Do you realize that parents pay more for day care than when their child begins Kindergarten? A weekly fee for a day care center (school age) is $180 ($25.71 per day). So, let's go with that. Dump tenure and unions and pay teachers $25.71 PER CHILD (x 25 children)= $642.75 per day! Okay, $642.75 x 180 school days= $115,695!!! Good golly, Miss Molly! Believe me, if that is what districts were paying out, teachers would not need unions to bargain for class size----the school board would demand low numbers! Parents would make sure their child were doing their homework, reading to them at night, and holding everyone accountable for the success of their child. You would see parents just on sports night because a college scout is in the building. They would be present for parent conferences making sure their child's education reach beyond being a basketball player, but the athletic training, team doctor, player's accountant, or a franchise owner.

Today's society makes a joke of education---showcasing show after show of young adults becoming famous for being star-hungry idiots. Then, you have the audacity to fire those public servants on the front lines trying to make a difference?!? Get out of here! Before you jump out there and flap off at the mouth about bad teachers, keep in mind that many do their jobs (av. $35,000, even lower in rural areas), and work second jobs to keep their families afloat! I'm a teacher, not "waiting for superman", but SUPER SENSE from legislatures who do not need pass an exam or get a degree to do their jobs. The mere fact that they (or you) can read and respond to this article is because of a teacher. Show a little, no ALOT more respect!
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by pastorkayte1 March 22, 2010 3:05 PM EDT
I think now is the time for a mother of a Rhode Island school to speak up. I think the firings were warranted as many of the students cannot compete on a level as other students do, period. The parents are ill equipped to provide help to the teachers as well since they too went to these schools.

Here is what my opinion is on the subject, if the teachers cannot do their job they should be fired. I live in Rhode Island and I am the aunt or the mother of some of the children who go to school in this state. While I don't live in Central Falls, my daughter teaches those children dance. I have noticed that many of the older kids can't do some of the things that kids their age should be able to do like count change at the store or read books harder than comic books.

It may not be right to fire some of the teachers and not all of them because it is the fault of all of the teachers, the principal, the administrators, the faculty, as it takes a village to care for a child. However, it is the fault of the teachers that it took them till the 11th grade to find out that these children are not able to read or do math, as they should have seen this when they were in the lower grades.
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by tipper111 March 1, 2011 9:37 PM EST
It is the PARENT'S responsibility to find out how their children are doing. Stop relying on government to raise your children. It takes two parents to raise a child, stop dumping the responsibility on everyone else. (Yes, I have children, they can do math and speak three languages and are working on fourth (Spanish) and fifth (German) languages.

We spend time with our children and teach them ourselves and don't whine and complain that the nanny state doesn't babysit them).
by artsyjc March 2, 2010 1:22 PM EST
Many people ignore the main issues behind this situation.
1) The School Board decides what the curriculum is and even micro manages what is being taught down to what text books are approved. This would mean that the school board mandates to the teachers what they have to be taught and then blames the teachers when the kids aren't learning.

2) Education is a long term investment. Most americans are so stuck in the short term of how good the statistics learn on a test versus how the students actually interpret and apply that information. People can get good test scores but still be poorly educated adults who give little contribution to society. Or they can be poor test takers (test anxiety etc) but do well in applying those principles to life. So when we focus on the short term results we harm the students ability to focus on the future.

3) Duncan is completely flawed in her assumption that longer school days, privatizing schools, and completely over-hauling teaching staff are the only factors that are going to affects a students performance. What truly needs to change is the ideologies behind education. Our teach to the test curriculum and load and dump of info methods are not working! Theorist Paulo Friere states that education is an active, reflective and dynamic process. I do not see evidence of those factors in our current school system.

When Americans can start making long term investments in our youths education. When we can stop blaming individuals for our societies lack of initiative and involvement, then we will see improvement in the education of our future society.
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by charles243 April 27, 2010 7:01 AM EDT
Duncan is a man. Usually it is the departments teachers that decide texts, many schools no longer use them. Privatizing them, no but instead of the money going to the school district, it should follow the student and the and the parents decide where they want to spend the state aid or whether they want to make other arrangements. This includes home schooling them. This would truly give students a Free and appropriate education, and schools would have to compete for students.
by lssbigdog March 2, 2010 7:33 AM EST
govt is going to privatize educationl;
Reply to this comment
by charles243 April 27, 2010 7:06 AM EDT
Government needs to do something to bring education back from the abyss in this country.
by mikestorm42 February 26, 2010 8:16 PM EST
I see a lot of comments asking "what about the administrators?" Does anyone here read any further than this story? EVERYONE who could be held responsible at the school got fired, including administration, from the Principal on down.

The school board didn't target teachers. They were given options, were some of the highest paid workers in the entire area, and instead of taking responsibility, they chose another path. I'm not saying the school board was right, but it was definitely a bold move. Now lets see if it works.
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by klaby February 25, 2010 1:22 PM EST
Japaspanglish you can't have it both ways. You cant say they are professionals and should be paid as such and then not tack responsiblity for poor performance. 7% can do math!!! No where else in any profession do you get to keep your job with a 7% succes rate! NO WHERE! Bottom line is these teachers are not getting the job done. and now they have no job, just like everyone else who isn't getting the job done!
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by Japaspanglish February 25, 2010 7:17 PM EST
High School curricula prepares students for college. If we are to believe the statistics the question is how did they get to be unable to do math and read? Are high school teachers supposed to teach how to read or literature? Think about it. Student populations have different needs. SIFE kids, which were the ones referred to in this story (transient, esl kids) present with many more layers of problems. Schools in lower income neighborhoods with challenging populations have to have support staff, Wilson classes for basic literacy, ESL courses and more. These students should not be compared to others to judge their progress, rather they should be compared to themselves as they learn the English language, writing and reading skills, content area knowledge. Statistics can be interpreted in many ways. Do teachers wake students up and feed them breakfast and give them clothes and money.. hmmm no.. thats a parent's job. Teachers must be responsible for what happens in the classroom. Teaching is a team sport. Students must come prepared for high school level instruction. Student who dont have those skills need more time and help and dont fit into cookie cutter schedules for graduation. Teachers should not be penalized and forced to work without fair compensation or even the chance to negotiate. Unions exist for a reason, and that reason is White Chalk Crime. This firing is nothing but drama, the theatre of school reform which leads to nothing but a reshuffling of people with no real solution behind it. It just looks as if something is being done.
by teacherkh February 25, 2010 11:47 PM EST
Are you sure that this has nothing to do with administration? There is something inherently wrong blaming the entire issue on the teachers. If you probed into what is going on, you would discover there is fraud committed by administrations all over this country. This includes false reports. Typically they are false in the other direction to give an impression of success. But IF they wanted to fire teachers who cost too much and want to circumvent age discrimination laws as well as their promise to pay teachers more after many years, these people are likely to put out false reports to blame the teachers so they can achieve their goals. It is not that defending teachers at all cost is appropriate, but our nation is making a huge mistake trusting those running our schools. I wrote an entire book about what is going on - there are mini Bernie Madoff's in charge all over and any type of fraud to achieve their ends is what they do. You are very right that teachers must be responsible, but please stop blindly supporting these greedy power mongers. People didn't believe what was going on in the Catholic church so for many years boys kept being molested. Teachers are sometimes bad, but you must learn to not trust administrators. Go to WhiteChalkCrime.com and EndTeacherAbuse.org and learn about this phenomenon. CNN's reporting is making me sick it is so one-sided. I don't know how no one knew what Bernie Madoff was doing for so many years and I don't know why no one knows what these thieves running our schools are doing, but trust me one day you will wish you figured this out. Our democracy is slipping away because people just assume whatever administrators say is gospel when they really could make Madoff look like a small time thief. After all these people are stealing from our children and all of us.
by stormerF2 February 25, 2010 7:52 AM EST
I guess the teachers union in R.I. just does not have the pull the Auto Unions do? This is what needs to happen all over,fire them all and start with a clean slate with no Unions to protect the unproductive.
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by erich_1-2009 February 25, 2010 12:58 AM EST
The Tale of Two Schools in California

School #1 - This school is a Christian/Baptist High School in Los Angeles. Many of the Student graduate and go on to the best four year colleges in the nation. There is hardly any drop-out rate. The campus is older, but well maintained. Good teachers. Cost per year $7,700 per student.

School #2 - This school is a Public High School in California. The Public High Schools in California average a 38% drop-out rate, in many parts of Los Angeles it is over 50%. The campus has modern equipment. Cost per year paid by the State $14,000 per student.

Something is wrong!
Reply to this comment
by simplethoughts February 25, 2010 6:06 PM EST
When comparing school costs for public vs. private, what is not often taken into account is the type of costs that occur at public schools that for the most part are not an issue at private schools. Examples of this (and by far the biggest reason for cost disparity) is the special education requirements at the public schools. For instance at our school you have about 1 teacher per 25 students in a classroom (about 150 for the day) and yet there are 4 teachers and 5 aides that serve approxiametely 30 students total. The school is also responsible for the payment of services of those who go to special schools if their home is within our district. Then there is the cost of busing and feeding students on free and reduced meals that most (but not all)private schools do not have to worry about. This is required by law, and I don't state this as a criticism but just a reality that most people do not realize they should take into acount when comparing the costs of education with public vs. private.
by teacherkh February 25, 2010 12:30 AM EST
As usual, when the public examines education issues, their thinking remains superficial; they try to figure out problems that are deeply rooted without looking deep. Yes, it is true that these teachers could be deficient. But why is no one, including Duncan, thinking: "could the administrators be the problem?" If the public knew about what was really going on they would know that not only are the administrations to blame, but that they have become magnificently successful at creating deflective propaganda so none of us even look at their contribution to this mess we call education. Okay, let's agree teachers are a problem even though they are far less the problem than most could imagine. Nevertheless some are. Why is not one finger pointed at administrators? This just doesn't make sense. At least they should be taking a percentage of the blame. But none? People need to wake up and figure out that something fishy is going on here. And the fishy thing is White Chalk Crime. I wrote a book about it - White Chalk Crime: The REAL Reason Schools Fail; Untold Story of Crime that has Destroyed our Schools and How Teacher Abuse and Teacher Cleansing Have Cleverly Kept the Truth from You -- to educate the public so we can begin to get our schools back. Contact me at EndTeacherAbuse.org and I will be happy to send you a free PDF of the pertinent chapters so you can figure this out, which takes getting past all the propaganda. They have woven a thick web around the truth and it takes some work to get to the truth. This is why I wrote the book. I care about our children and our nation's future and it is pretty hopeless when the public allows these power mongers, who operate with the same greed our banks and Wall St. have operated, to do as they please. I heard a teacher on CNN state that the teachers were not demanding more money and were not given a chance to negotiate. Sure looks like one of these deals where the union pulled the rug out from under the teachers. They do this all over this nation as they promote White Chalk Crime so they can remain in business. I would speculate this is about rehiring much cheaper teachers and bypassing age discrimination laws as well as the promise that teachers who have put in many years are entitled to higher salaries. And if they were doing this for the children, maybe we could understand although bypassing laws is never okay. But I can assure you they are doing this for the money they need to either cover up some embezzlement they don't want know or just because they want more money. Just read my book. You will be stunned. Not since we discovered the priests abusing boys have we encountered such appalling inhumane beings. It is time people woke up. I don't know why Obama is allowing this. It is very disappointing. What we need is more people to get what is going on so they can pressure him into doing the right thing. So do contact me as I wrote it to get it read - for the children!
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by Japaspanglish February 26, 2010 12:37 PM EST
Obama hired Arne Duncan, he applauded the teacher cleansing move. Teacher unions supported Obama. Perhaps teacher unions should not continue to do so. Race to the Bottom is causing all kinds of drama even worse than the NCLB legislation did. What will history say ? Mismanagement is rampant and no one complains or says a thing but teachers a demonized. The Rhode Island school had a parade of adminstrators and multiple efforts at reform. Why is this fact not focused on? It isnt as interesting as demonizing teachers as "fatcats".
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