President Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and his policies were the target of many of the letters.
About a month ago education historian and public school’s activist Diane Ravitch called on us to write President Obama on October 17th with our concerns about the direction federal education policy has taken during his administration.
400 people responded.
Earlier this month, Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered his state of education speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., which was part self-review of his department’s goals and achievements and part campaign speech for his boss, President Obama.
But not all educators are ardent supporters of the president’s policies, and they are letting him know.
At about the same time Duncan was giving his speech, education historian and professor Diane Ravitch issued a call to teachers, administrators, parents and students to send letters to the president, expressing their sincere views on his education policies.
In her own draft of a letter to President Obama, Ravitch says, “Please, Mr. President, stop talking about rewarding and punishing teachers. Teachers are professionals, not toddlers.” She also asks the president to “stop encouraging the privatization of education” and to “speak out against the spread of for-profit schools.” She adds “Please withdraw your support from the failed effort to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students.”
Teacher and education activist Anthony Cody volunteered to help gather the correspondence. In 2009, Cody led the “Teachers’ Letters to Obama” effort and collected about 100 letters. That campaign led to a meeting with Secretary Duncan but no change in education policies.
This month, educators and parents sent correspondence to The Campaign for Our Public Schools website. On October 18, Cody compiled nearly 400 letters, almost three-quarters of these from educators. They were printed, bound and sent to the White House last week. Cody told CNN that “the level of frustration now is even higher” among teachers than it was three years ago.
Fred Klonsky 
Teacher choice of presidential candidates at this moment rests on the overall premise of “lesser evil” since, regarding education, both candidates support for-profit schools and using student test scores to evaluate teachers. Educators will act as soon as this election is over – if Obama wins, to get rid of Arnie Duncan and change policies and if Romney, to block any policies under his new Secretary of Education that would continue what Bush, Obama and Duncan have done to destroy public education in this country. For those of us who are voting for Obama, our frustration is particularly palpable. To protect his campaign, we have suppressed our discontent but, come mid November, and should he win, we will unleash the fury. There will be change.
What makes you so sure Obama will listen to you after he’s elected? What influence do you have at that point?
It’s futile to think teachers could exert much influence on the candidates in the time between the strike and the election. Both of them ignored our concerns about new reform and negated those efforts. I am confident of the leadership, momentum and organization that was created during the Chicago Teachers Strike. Throughout the strike and this electoral campaign, teachers and parents have become more aware of the issues. I am not privy to how anyone votes but I am sure it is in the minds of most public school teachers which candidate they want to engage. Whoever gets elected is not going to have an easy time of it. What is important is that there is now a resistance, tried, tested and ready to go at it again when the moment once more presents itself.