These people must be stopped.
Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess' "Preschool For All" plan is now Proposition 1B on the November ballot and if it passes it's going to be a Dickensian hell for many of our youngest children, who will be subjected to the drill-and-kill, test-prep coal mine. Please help us get the word out to vote "No" on this hideous thing, that like the Bill Gates-developed and funded federal
Common Core national curriculum, has been developed almost exclusively by corporate profiteers without any meaningful input from child development experts or education professionals. The whole cast of bad actors is involved in this one from the
Gates Foundation and
Teach for America, to the
KIPP charter chain, standardized testing monolith
Pearson Education, and
Head Start privatizer Acelero.
Oh, and Seattle Public Schools, which will be required to provide space for these programs, is being entirely cut out of the process, which is championed by the aforementioned Tim Burgess, a former Seattle Police detective and journalist, a man with absolutely no educational background.
This cannot happen in our backyard. Please help. Tell everyone you know to vote "No" on Proposition 1B.
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When you came out to visit us here at the Sunshine Coast in Australia, we were all blown away by how much freedom you seemed to have compared to all the red tape and hoops we have to jump through. Our thoughts are with you - keep fighting the good fight! We keep telling ourselves that eventually the decision makers in Educational Policy will have to start listening to the people who actually have real hands on experience and expertise in Early Childhood Education. Who knows - it may even 'trickle up' into schools. Cheers, Roseann
ReplyDeleteWhen you came out to visit us here at the Sunshine Coast in Australia, we were all blown away by how much freedom you seemed to have compared to all the red tape and hoops we have to jump through. Our thoughts are with you - keep fighting the good fight! We keep telling ourselves that eventually the decision makers in Educational Policy will have to start listening to the people who actually have real hands on experience and expertise in Early Childhood Education. Who knows - it may even 'trickle up' into schools. Cheers, Roseann
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up about Proposition 1B. On the surface it sounds like a great program, especially for low income families. KUOW recently ran a piece that implied that the new preschool programs would be similar to the Play and Learn programs that we enjoyed before coming to Woodland Park. That all sounded positive. Thanks for pulling back the covers and letting us see what's really behind the proposed program. I'll have to do some more research before our ballots are due. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis won't impact us directly, Roseann. This is being sold as preschool for low income families, but I suspect it's just an attempt to get the camel's nose under the tent.
ReplyDeletewhat about 1a? and I guess because of the way it's structured, we pick ( yes or no ) and ( 1a or 1b ). Is 1a any good? ie is it better to choose yes+1a or no+1a
ReplyDelete@Anon . . . If 1A passes it will mandate hiring more teachers to meet the requirement of smaller classes. The problem with the measure is that it doesn't include a funding mechanism, which means the $1 billion or so it will cost will have to come from somewhere else. In a sane world, that would be taken from the subsidies we pay corporations like Boeing, but in reality it will likely come out of programs that help families. The polling indicates that it's going to pass, which means that voters will at least be sending a strong message that we want more $$ for education. I'll probably vote for it, but it's not a well-crafted measure.
ReplyDelete