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PZ Myers is a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.
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And there shall in that time be rumours of things going astray, and there will be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia work base, that has an attachment they will not be there. At this time a friend shall lose his friends's hammer and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before …
[Prophet in Monty Python's, "Life of Brian"]
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Category: Creationism
Posted on: October 9, 2007 1:00 AM, by PZ Myers
Good news: the new education commissioner for Florida is not Cheri Yecke. It's someone named Eric Smith, about whom I know nothing, so we'll have to wait and see if they're an improvement.
Ugh. The improvement is only marginal. He's another conservative testing rodent who thinks the answer is privatizing schools.
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Comments
That means he's most emphatically not conservative. He's a radical, revolutionary neoliberal.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | October 9, 2007 3:11 AM
hmm, so when the article says:
we should instead interpret that as the "neoliberal" position.
?
I must be wearing the wrong glasses again. Ever since the "hanging chad" incident, I can never figure out how the hell to interpret anything coming from the media in Florida.
;)
Posted by: Ichthyic | October 9, 2007 3:33 AM
Maybe I missed it. But I am surprised you seem not to have noted your friend Larry's presented videos on the Canadian CBC on atheism.
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2007/10/atheists-spreading-word.html
There is some education students could use. I doubt we will see it on an American MSM.
Posted by: bernarda | October 9, 2007 4:16 AM
$195,189 to $275,058 salary, and Yecke was a finalist??? So how much money can you make in Florida if you're qualified and competent?
Posted by: Ex-drone | October 9, 2007 7:10 AM
This state is a festering shithole. And not the good kind.
Posted by: craig | October 9, 2007 8:47 AM
Smith was run out of NC on a rail. He royally screwed up the education system down there. When he got to MD, he did the same thing. His first act in office in a county that desperately needed updated books? Gutting the offices at the board of ed and bringing new furniture, new carpet, new paint, new lighting, and new "art" to the tune of a few million dollars.
Florida is screwed.
Posted by: anonymouscoworker | October 9, 2007 9:49 AM
He's a true conservative.
EFFFF the poor is their motto.
Posted by: Steve_C | October 9, 2007 10:05 AM
Private enterprises fail all the time. Big ones, little ones, good ones and not so good ones. I am curious to know what the privatizers will do with children whose schools fail - as they inevitably will in a competitive market. When Bob's EduMart goes titsup from mismanagement and crappy marketing, will all those students be placed in holding pens while EducationsIsUs ramps up to handle the increased demand? Or will Bob's get a government bailout? Just curious.
Posted by: bybelknap, FCD | October 9, 2007 10:08 AM
Coincidentally, here's Bob Herbert's op-ed in today's NYT: "It's time to rein in the test zealots who have gotten such a stranglehold on the public schools in the U.S."
Oh, and off-topic, here's another mention of McCain and the "Christian Nation" lie.
Meanwhile, Krugman sings "Same as it ever was."
Posted by: Kseniya | October 9, 2007 10:19 AM
Public schools also fail all the time--but they don't go out of business, they continue operating.
Arizona's charter school system--where private entities provide education at public expense--has produced both good and bad schools. The good ones include the first high school in Arizona to make U.S. News and World Report's top 100 high schools list--BASIS High School, which came in at #3. The bad ones go out of business and the students go to other charter schools or public schools.
I don't think there's any reason why government should be *operating* schools, as opposed to mandating standards and revoking charters for those that fail to meet them.
Any argument which has a consequence that the BASIS school shouldn't have been allowed to come into existence strikes me as a flawed argument.
Posted by: Jim Lippard | October 9, 2007 11:25 AM
None of which is conservative. The conservative candidate in 2004 was Kerry.
In the USA, yes.
Maybe it should mandate a few more standards instead of leaving so much to micro-local institutions...
Posted by: David Marjanović | October 9, 2007 11:42 AM
Which conservatism are you talking about?
Conservatives want to kill the pulblic schoo system. They do make mandates and then don't supply adequate funding to the schools to meet the mandates.
Then they can point to the schools as failing and then move the funds to "private" schools that actually aren't required to meet the same mandates.
That is American Conservatism on education.
Posted by: Steve_C | October 9, 2007 12:00 PM
And THIS is another reason why I homeschool.
Posted by: k | October 9, 2007 12:47 PM
Jim,
Of course you wouldn't want to mention that BASIS High School also has the ability to pick and choose which students it will accept and incorporates a very stringent entrance exam that students must pass in order to even be considered for admission. University High School, a public school also in Tucson, and also able to pick and choose the students it accepts is consistently ranked 2nd or 3rd in the State of Arizona.
Your argument is actually, whether you acknowledge it or not...
"When schools get to pick their students they are successful."
Amazing.
I truly enjoy people slamming public schools when the schools are required to provide education to all students, regardless of their lack of interest or motivation, and are effectively, virtually across the board, underfunded for the task set before them.
Posted by: dogmeatib | October 9, 2007 1:12 PM
None of which is conservative. The conservative candidate in 2004 was Kerry.
ah, wait, I see what's going on...
you need to flip the mirror you are looking through to the other side.
Posted by: Ichthyio | October 9, 2007 4:05 PM
"Florida Chooses Wisely" ... by Florida standards, actually, yes!
(I.e., we somehow didn't get the Bushevik.)
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | October 9, 2007 8:09 PM
(Dogmeat gets my vote.)
I believe that David means:
The "conservative" (small c) stance is to preserve the public school system as it is, with improvements. (This is typically associated with Democrats/Liberals).
The [nominally] "Conservative" (read: Republican) stance is to apply radical changes to the system, which in no way "conserves" the system as conceived by the Founding Fathers.
Posted by: Kseniya | October 10, 2007 8:19 AM
According to the Florida Times-Union article "Yecke out as Florida's K-12 chancellor" (19 Dec 07):
Posted by: Ex-drone | December 21, 2007 10:48 PM