Hancock gets bold on Ed Reform

2 thoughts on “Hancock gets bold on Ed Reform”

1. Your post here is typical of the mind-set of the corporate, hostile-takeover strategy of the public education system.  It’s all hot air without any data to back it up.

   No matter.  We have the examples for you.  Let’s see what happens in a few cities around the country:

   The schools of Chicago, home of Arne Duncan, show a  pretty lackluster achievement rate.  40% of their schools classify as “failing” by their own measure.

   In New York City, the test scores were artificially inflated.  In actuality, New York state exams were being made easier and narrower in focus. Scores defining “proficiency” for grade level or subjects were lowered. All this happened on Michael Bloomberg’s watch.

   I wonder how that all worked out for Adrian Fenty in Washington, D.C.?  Oh, right.  He LOST, and his bulldog Superintendent, Michelle Rhee, got tossed out on her ear right behind him.

   So…let Michael Hancock make that case for mayoral control.  In essence, he’s for elimination of a separate governing body to oversee education and the proper dispensation of taxpayer dollars.  If he’s for mayoral control, then he’s for taxation without representation.  A vote for mayoral control is a vote for corruption, zero transparency and the wholesale failure of our kids.

   Good luck with all that.

   Log in to Reply

2. Look at what Michelle Rhee did in DC and Bloomberg did in New York City and there is hope for DPS if we get serious.

   Well, the hippie is as ignorant of education reform as he is of politics themselves.  First, hippie, you should read this article by Joanne Barkan in Dissent Magazine: “Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools”.  Then ask yourself, why would Michael Handcock want mayoral control?  Well, money, of course.

   Let’s start simple.  Handcock likes to say, “Great neighborhoods start with great schools,” Handcock should know, especially in far Northeast Denver, where Handcock pushed for one of the most potentially horrifying hoaxes in education reform.  

   In Montbello and Green Valley Ranch, Handcock and State Senator Michael Johnson worked with DPS superintendent Tom Boasberg to create a reform plan that combines all of DPS’ reform failures of the past 5 years into one big neighborhood-killing reform.  Schools were closed. New schools that will use unproven models will be opened.  Entire school faculties will be fired.  Students will be displaced, and if this goes like DPS’ typical school closures, those students will attend schools that are even worse than what they left.

   Why?  Well, see, Michael Handcock is in up to his eyes with Patrick Hamill, CEO of Oakwood Homes. Oakwood has a strong economic interest in Green Valley Ranch, and not the salad dressing. Remember, great schools make great neighborhoods, and homes sell for more money in great neighborhoods. This is especially true of neighborhoods that are more affluent and “gentrified.” If there is one thing the genteel middle class likes, it’s living next door to other members of the genteel middle class.

   So, with Handcock’s version of school reform, he gets to play it both ways.  First he can say he’s helping those poor minorities suffering through bad schools in far Northeast Denver, all the while working the Hamill angle to get more genteel middle class homeowners to displace those poor minorities.

   And how does this work out for Handcock?  Easy — he gets the nod of the Denver business community, and other city big shots who suckle at the teat of Pat Hamill.  Then once he becomes mayor, Handcock gets the big money, the kind of money described in Joanne Barkan’s article cited above.

   I know, you’re skeptical, hippie, but check this out: Denver’s newest school brings a ‘sense of place’ to Green Valley Ranch.  There they are, diggin’ a new school.  Pat Hamill, Happy Haynes, and former Hamill employee Kelly Leid, now DPS Operations Director, all standing there is a shovel in their hands, as it would turn out, pushin’ dirt for Handcock and his mayoral campaign.  

   If Handcock cared a bit about education, he would realize that all the “reforms” he just pushed through and will now inflict on his constituents in far Northeast Denver have resulted in nothing in DPS’ schools.  As former Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien pointed out to a group of reformers at a meeting two weeks ago, DPS has been trying reforms like those being unleashed on far Northeast Denver and “We haven’t moved the needle on inch.”  

   Good work Michael.

   Now pony up to those polls and vote for this chump, Denver.

   Log in to Reply