2 Comments to “TRANSCRIPT: Show Airing Jan. 31, 2010”
William E. Butler
on February 3rd, 2010 at 3:37 pm Said:
Roland, I read Sec’y Duncan’s apology for his statement about the New Orleans school situation before Katrina. The entire country knew it was bad. It was the goose that protected the golden egg (tourism). However, there were some local folk trying to do the right thing. The secretary was to quick in his praise of what’s happening today, in (PK-12) education at least. I strongly encourgage you and others to keep the spot light on the New Orleans educational landscape. The system that’s in place now is two-tiered, and is quickly becoming more of the same. There are pockets of good things happening, just like before. The masses are still being underserved in the state run system. The local advocacy groups have been silenced for the most part, and people who have been fighting for control, are now in control – they’re pulling strings from behind the curtain. The game is the same – albeit, the faces have changed. The dust should settle by summer, please invite Mr. Duncan back for another critique.
jwill7
on February 4th, 2010 at 3:18 am Said:
Arnie Duncan has “apologized.” So what? How long are we going to allow racists to make insensitive comments like the one he made, and then apologize and everything is fine. That seems to be the new fashion. Insult African Americans, apologize = all is fine.
But all should never be fine when this man (Duncan), who does not possess the academic credentials to teach in many school systems, let alone head the school system of the entire country — after destroying both the educational and physical lives of thousands of Black children in the Chicago Public School system, makes such an insensitive statement about a disaster that killed over a thousand people, and left many thousands homeless; after waiting on roof tops for many days waiting to be rescued.
No one with even a trite of respect for the suffering of others would even have such a thought. Where from, and how could, such a thought ever enter into a decent person’s mind?
But in Duncan’s uncaring mind, it was an attempt to show how much his mentor Paul Vallas (also a non educator, who preceded Duncan as destroyer of the Chicago schools) has improved schools in New Orleans. And they’re get public relations experts to cosign the lie. But according to many Blacks who live in New Orleans, all that has happened is equal to taking a barrel of sand (a few new corporate dictated “charter” schools), and placing a thing covering of apples on top of the sand, and then claiming that the whole barrel is filled with apples.
My cousin teaches in the Chicago Public Schools, she visited for the holidays. From her, we received a full account of the horrors those men, Duncan and Vallas, brought to that system. She talked about how qualified Blacks were forced to submit to the authority of some one who is a “dropout,” in terms of what the qualifications are for the job, and the lack of credentials he has: An undergraduate degree. Even as she was leaving for home, she continued to talk about how the children were being miseducated on purpose. She talked about how Duncan would blame teachers and parents for all the things wrong, but take credit for himself, for all the things considered right. She said his appointment was to continue the process of giving the schools, like everything else, to Wall Street. She said his appointment to the post of National Secretary of Education is what “snapped” her out of her hypnotic state.
She said any one interested in improving education would simply fund schools equally, rather than create special “aparttheid” schools for a handful, while leaving the masses behind, as his so-call “reform” plan does.
Roland, I read Sec’y Duncan’s apology for his statement about the New Orleans school situation before Katrina. The entire country knew it was bad. It was the goose that protected the golden egg (tourism). However, there were some local folk trying to do the right thing. The secretary was to quick in his praise of what’s happening today, in (PK-12) education at least. I strongly encourgage you and others to keep the spot light on the New Orleans educational landscape. The system that’s in place now is two-tiered, and is quickly becoming more of the same. There are pockets of good things happening, just like before. The masses are still being underserved in the state run system. The local advocacy groups have been silenced for the most part, and people who have been fighting for control, are now in control – they’re pulling strings from behind the curtain. The game is the same – albeit, the faces have changed. The dust should settle by summer, please invite Mr. Duncan back for another critique.
Arnie Duncan has “apologized.” So what? How long are we going to allow racists to make insensitive comments like the one he made, and then apologize and everything is fine. That seems to be the new fashion. Insult African Americans, apologize = all is fine.
But all should never be fine when this man (Duncan), who does not possess the academic credentials to teach in many school systems, let alone head the school system of the entire country — after destroying both the educational and physical lives of thousands of Black children in the Chicago Public School system, makes such an insensitive statement about a disaster that killed over a thousand people, and left many thousands homeless; after waiting on roof tops for many days waiting to be rescued.
No one with even a trite of respect for the suffering of others would even have such a thought. Where from, and how could, such a thought ever enter into a decent person’s mind?
But in Duncan’s uncaring mind, it was an attempt to show how much his mentor Paul Vallas (also a non educator, who preceded Duncan as destroyer of the Chicago schools) has improved schools in New Orleans. And they’re get public relations experts to cosign the lie. But according to many Blacks who live in New Orleans, all that has happened is equal to taking a barrel of sand (a few new corporate dictated “charter” schools), and placing a thing covering of apples on top of the sand, and then claiming that the whole barrel is filled with apples.
My cousin teaches in the Chicago Public Schools, she visited for the holidays. From her, we received a full account of the horrors those men, Duncan and Vallas, brought to that system. She talked about how qualified Blacks were forced to submit to the authority of some one who is a “dropout,” in terms of what the qualifications are for the job, and the lack of credentials he has: An undergraduate degree. Even as she was leaving for home, she continued to talk about how the children were being miseducated on purpose. She talked about how Duncan would blame teachers and parents for all the things wrong, but take credit for himself, for all the things considered right. She said his appointment was to continue the process of giving the schools, like everything else, to Wall Street. She said his appointment to the post of National Secretary of Education is what “snapped” her out of her hypnotic state.
She said any one interested in improving education would simply fund schools equally, rather than create special “aparttheid” schools for a handful, while leaving the masses behind, as his so-call “reform” plan does.