The Regents and Collateral Damage- Thoughts from a Bronx Common Core Forum

The amount of "collateral damage" those who call themselves "School Reformers" are willing to endure in their quest to prepare children ( including those not yet born)  to compete in the Global Economy never ceases to amaze me. They claim to be motivated by idealism and a passion for equity, yet they are totally unmoved by stories of real life hardship, difficulty and abuse inspired by policies , that, when all is said and done, are based on projections and abstractions that are immune to the rules of evidence. I saw that first hand at last night's Bronx Forum. Regent's chair Tisch actually claimed to be moved by some of the stories told by parents and teachers at the event, but was unwilling to to deviate from the State's larger plan even though she could provide no evidence that it was actually achieving any of her goals. All she could say is that " she realized that the first year would be rough, but rough edges accompany any reform." There is no "too much" in her projections of "how much" pain is acceptable when you forcibly impose Common Core standards onto school systems already traumatized by test based teacher evaluations. That is why Tisch, Commissioner King and most of the Regents should be forced to resign. There is no limit to the pain they are willing to subject your children to, pain their own children are immune to because they do not attend public school.