Programming women, kids to fail
To the editor,
Do you accept that politicians keep their hands in women’s health care while slashing access to less than adequate nutrition for their children? If people were truly “pro-life,” they would be out moving mountains to feed America’s children. Why are they hanging around women’s clinics humiliating, intimidating, bullying and punishing women and those who help them? Our Constitution states that you are absolutely free to obey your religion. You are absolutely not free to enforce your religion. Politicians want to control women’s fertility to create a population of cheap labor by denying good nutrition for 20 percent – 25 percent of America’s children.
In 2014, Coloradoans voted to protect their guns. What we got was more slashed education and nutrition programs and the “personhood” of a woman repeatedly denied. The Republicans who rejected the school Start Smart nutrition program should lose their jobs, not the cafeteria worker who fed the hungry children. Kent Lambert defended the cut saying that churches would take over this problem. If that were so, Texas would have the healthiest children in the world. They don’t, 25 percent of Texas children face food insecurity and hunger. Texas politicians grease the lucrative school-to-prison pipeline. Who do you think benefits?
Nationally, the Republicans are zealous over slashing food stamps to those they humiliate and demean. Nobody is feeding the children that conservatives force low income women to bear through their illegal religious laws that denies their access to birth control and health care. How long will we stand for the Republicans’ programmed failure for women and children? It is a disaster.
Now politicians are all aflutter over a manipulated and partisan manufactured video to strike poses and destroy Planned Parenthood.
They will deny low-income people access to health care and create a stimulus package to fill privatized prison cells. Not only is the cheap labor almost free, it is totally captive to the corporate profits that fund the politicians. This is a “how-to” manual to make slavery appear legal. Will we vote for the American Legislative Exchange Council with the politicians they’ve bought to grow their undernourished child mill?
– Stephanie Johnson, Durango
Tests put profits ahead of learning
To the editor,
For more than two decades, students in public schools have been evaluated by a wide-screening, independent testing process known as standardized testing. The implementation of these tests is carried out by districts under the direction of state departments of education. Students are tested at various grade levels in order to measure their academic abilities and growth. While these tests have been introduced with well-intentioned hopes, they have, unfortunately, reaped less-than-desired results. And, in the long run, they have had a profound effect on how schools are managed and how students learn. As a result, the teaching process has been transformed significantly. Teachers have found themselves increasingly becoming conduits in the institutionalized marketization of education. Corporate publishing houses have reaped outrageous profits under the guise that their tests have improved student learning. Most recently, the public has begun to take action on exposing the inadequacies of these tests and their effects.
Independent research has shown that these tests have resulted in little or no improvement in student achievement. Alfie Kohn’s book, The Case Against Standardized Testing, is a blistering attack on standardized tests and the profiteers who market them at the taxpayer’s expense. Ken Pransky, in the introduction of his book, Beneath the Surface, is quoted as saying, “No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and high stakes testing want to force us down prescribed or ill-conceived paths, which are not in the best interests of our students.” In many cases, test results have shown little effect on student motivation as many students see no real practical value in taking them. As a result, many students are indifferent to the results. Though standardized testing gives teachers some important data on learning deficiencies, its overall use is nominal given the costs.
The issues that revolve around student achievement and growth are dynamic and complex. They are controlled by various social and cultural restraints, educational and political policies, demographic issues and economic conditions. One of the most egregious uses of standardized test results is their use in determining teacher effectiveness and school recertification and funding. Often, results are used to punish schools, resulting in outside privatization of the district and the firing of administrators and disastrous revamping of the entire school culture. The incursion by the political elite has been well organized and orchestrated by those that have found clever ways to manipulate public opinion, line the pockets of lobbyists and dismantle or defund districts. In a sense, standardized testing has become the “bully pulpit” for state educational departments to pressure districts to conform or risk losing certification or funding.
Effective education takes place primarily through student-teacher contact. Each year, student contact hours have been reduced by the intrusion and implementation of more and more testing. This creates a vicious cycle where students are tested more and learn less. The average district spends over six weeks of the academic year prepping and testing students. Research has shown that standardized testing has also created disinterest and apathy among students during the testing process, as many of the testing procedures include exaggerated wait times. The rescheduling of classes and the disruption of consistent learning is wide spread. This has had a profound effect on teacher and student morale. Teachers ask, “How can I improve scores when precious teaching time is taken away by testing?”
It is paramount that the public becomes informed. Standardized testing has become the least publicized and investigated process in education. Educational reform can be achieved by the cooperation of all entities working together in a local setting. Meaningful measures – such as periodic, outcome-based, localized testing – should be implemented. The hiring of additional teachers would be advantageous for differentiated learning and a growing exceptional student population. The examination and review of student portfolios is a reliable way to measure growth. The millions of dollars that are used for standardized testing could be allocated to increase staff and salaries. Funds could be used to improve resources and facilities that are in disrepair. These are just a few of the alternatives that progressive districts have used as they move away from standardized tests.
The democratization of education is not a given. It is fostered by public involvement. It is maintained by those who believe in the equity and the diversity of the learning environment. The process should be managed and controlled by local boards, the academic community and the public. Systems for evaluating teacher competency and effectiveness should be addressed in accordance with standards approved by all local stakeholders, not corporate profiteering.
– Burt Baldwin, Ignacio