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March 13, 2009

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"An Obama presidency...will likely sever the last threads of any connection between notions of racial disparity and structurally reproduced inequality rooted in political economy...the recent outpouring of enthusiastic support from all quarters...for his attacks on black poor people underscores the likelihood that Obama will be even more successful than Clinton at selling punitive, regressive and frankly racist social policies as humane anti-poverty initiatives." (Adolph Reed, Jr., Where Obamaism Seems to be Going)

Someone needs to send Obama a copy of the Shock Doctrine.

Obama and all the other DP/RP elites already know about the shock doctrine, since they are the ones who do the shocking. This is why I never suggest that anyone should "speak truth to power". Power always knows; it's the rest of us who need the truth to be told.

Obama is taking on the teacher's unions. Good for him!! Some of the teachers' turf protecting is standing in the way of needed school reforms.

Which reforms, Blue?

Merit pay is no reform. Nor are charter schools. The union opposes both of those, and that's a good thing.

Or how about testing for accountability? The union isn't entirely opposed to that, although almost all teachers hate teaching to the test which is what testing for accountability comes down to.

The only reform I can think of that the unions oppose has to do with teacher transfers to low income schools. And that's an entirely negotiable issue.

Terry, how do you defend your contention that a true merit pay system would not be an important reform? Also, you concede that the union opposes charter schools, which is indeed a significant reform movement. Saying that black is white is not much of an argument.

I don't know what a "true" merit pay system is, or how it might differ from tying teacher pay to the test scores a worthy teacher might wring from her students. Please clarify.

As for characterizing charter schools as "significant reform", the burden of proof is with you, Blue. All of the studies that I've read show little difference between charters and traditional neighborhood schools.

The one marked difference is that charters typically cater to a wealthier student demographic. Is that the reform you want?

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