Teachers Without a Political Party

Thanks to the nonstop bribery of politicians from both political parties in order to promote a neoliberal, anti-American agenda, teachers have nowhere to go this election for political support.

The education issue alone is reason for me to refuse to support Barack Obama's re-election. He subscribes to the same neolib nonsense that is wrecking havoc all over the country. His secretary of education is arguably the worst cabinet choice in the history of the United States because his decisions are NOT in the best interests of future generations. It's all about payback to the billionaires and other crooks who seek to scam the public sector in order to further enrich themselves.

Throughout Obama's term, Obama's discourse has been almost directly contradicted by Duncan's discourse and the USDOE's policies. Obama tended to state that teachers were the most important in-school influence on student learning while Duncan tends to continue omitting the "in-school" qualifier, but these nuances of language are of little value since the USDOE under Obama has an agenda nearly indistinguishable from Republican agendas:
• Promoting that all states should adopt CCSS and the necessary increase of testing and textbook support to follow.

• Endorsing market dynamics and school choice by embracing the charter school movement, specifically corporate-style charters such as Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP).

• Embracing and promoting "no excuses" ideologies for school reform and school cultures.

• Criticizing directly and indirectly public school teachers and perpetuating the "bad" teacher myth by calling for changes in teacher evaluations and compensation, disproportionately based on student test scores.

• Funding and endorsing the spread of test-based accountability to departments and colleges of education involved in teacher certification.

• Funding and endorsing the de-professionalization of teaching through support for Teach for America.

• Appealing to the populist message about choice by failing to confront the rise of "parent trigger" laws driven by corporate interests posing as concerned parents.

Obama is absolutely unacceptable for the presidency. Of course, Mitt is as bad or worse on this issue.

Nobody gives a shit about anybody but their fucking donors.