Arne Duncan and race to the top is leading Public Education to failure. Standardized testing and the so called experts who create, modify, and use so called data are now running education. Teachers, administrators and those who are in the classroom have surrendered their input in education policy and are being turned into nothing more than test facilitators with the sole aim of getting students to pass the test.

This focus will lead to grade inflation, test cheating, credit recovery, and all sorts of funny business that will make Public Education a joke and High School Diplomas meaningless. Until students are held accountable for their actions and effort Public Education will continue to flounder. Arne Duncan is placing all of the responsibility on the teachers and staff and none to little on the students.

Colleges beware; you are next because Arne Duncan wants everyone to graduate from college. Mr. Duncan and most of his staff never spent any time teaching in a classroom. Kind of like the Joint Chiefs of Staff never having attended Basic Training or ever commanded in the field.

Charles, since you continue to insist on your erroneous statements about HB 2281, I will have to continue to correct you.

First, the statement that ethnic studies classes in Tucson were created in response to a lawsuit is correct. The Arizona Republic reported several days ago that "The ethnic-studies program targeted for elimination under a new state law was itself created to help resolve a race-discrimination lawsuit against Tucson public schools."

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/05/19/20100519arizona-ethnic-studies-lawsuit.html

As for your repeated claim that the legislation does not ban ethnic studies, I will simply repeat my previous comment to you:

If the claim that HB 2281 "bans ethnic studies" is a lie, then the author of the bill, Arizona education superintendent Tom Horne, must be a liar. His campaign website currently features the headline, "Tom Horne Championed Bill to Ban Ethnic Studies":

http://www.electtomhorne.com/

Or visit Mr. Horne's Twitter page, where he talks about "the bill that I authored to ban ethnic studies."

http://twitter.com/tomhorneaz/status/14120069606

Now, one might easily argue that what HB 2281 actually prohibits is so outlandish that it is not a "ban on ethnic studies," since no ethnic studies class does these things. But Mr. Horne has made clear that he does believe ethnic studies classes of all kinds violate HB 2281. And according to the law, he is the one who gets to decide.

Does HB 2281 necessarily have to be an ethnic studies ban? No. Will it be one in practice? Yes.

Again, Celeste Headlee repeats the canard that a new Arizona law will "ban ethnic studies."

The regular repetition of that phrase cannot be an accidental error on the part of The Takeaway, since it happens with such frequency.

Celeste Headlee took this misinformation to a new level today, when she suggested that the target of the Arizona law (which is only classes that advocate things like the overthrow of American government) was ethnic studies classes that had been "created... because of lawsuits against [Arizona]" and that "now they are trying to eliminate them." She went to make an oblique reference to the ethnic studies programs as "precious."

It is almost impossible to unravel The Takeaway's total mess of these facts in any cogent way. Other than to say the obvious; that on almost a daily basis, The Takeaway has made references to the State of Arizona "banning ethnic studies," when no such thing is true.

It is not only money and teachers, we need to change the structure and organization of our educational system so that each student is the class. http://www.thestudentistheclass.com

Abraham S. Fischler
President Emeritus
Nova Southeastern University

If states and teachers' unions are really interested in saving teacher jobs and public employee jobs in general they should look past he usual soak local taxpayers or go begging to Washington $olution$.

States are in deep fiscal trouble in part because of generous Cadillac pensions and retiree health benefits that allow teachers and other public employees to live equal to or better than they did when they were working.

I am listening to THE TAKEAWAY's interview of Arnie Duncan which misses the larger point. I was laid off of my short-lived job as a Gifted Elementary teacher in January 2008 (without unemployment benefits) and have been working as a substitute teacher for several years. I invented (copyright pending from January 2009) a math table out of frustration with math-illiterate high schoolers; no one has the money to even look at it, with one alleged reviewer used as a substitute teacher to try to save money for the District! The government is only "taking ideas" from the usual suspects, not teachers-turned-innovators like myself.