Barresi and Gist listed among Chiefs for Change
Tulsa Public Schools has hired a controversial superintendent who headed Rhode Island schools, and like former Schools Superintendent Janet Barresi, was one of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change.
After a contentious Tulsa School board meeting, three dozen teachers and parents protesting the hiring walked out of the meeting.
As the controversy unfolded, a former Barresi aide took to social media to
defend the decision.
Deborah Gist comes from Rhode Island, where she was a Democrat-appointed state superintendent and a strong advocate for Common Core, the controversial program now closely linked to the Obama Administration. In a survey, 85% of Rhode Island teachers wanted Gist fired.
Former Barresi spokesman Damon Gardenhire writes on Facebook the following: “It was bizarre to watch some unhinged people (bloggers demanding “Don’t hire Gist,” picketers with absurd “Reboot and Reconsider” signs, people staging silly stunts like walking out of meetings) attack Deborah Gist before she’s even been hired or even set foot in Tulsa to start her job. This crowd of bullies looks increasingly illogical and intolerant – essentially, they are the anti-reform party with one answer to everything: ‘No.’ But that’s education politics.”
See the comprehensive Tulsa World story here:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/education/gist-is-school-board-s-choice-for-tps-superintendent/article_63bf084c-304a-514c-8840-bb32792f28c9.html
Gardenhire posting on Facebook apparently failed miserably at Math… 85% of Rhode Island teachers wanted Gist fired… That should tell someone something! Looks like the Common Core thugs did not get the message from an overwhelming number of voters in November… or maybe they have already forgotten what happened? Oh well.. on the bright side.. employment opportunities for Janet Barresi just made a huge improvement!!
If 85% of Rhode Island teachers wanted her fired, it tells me she may be the right person for the job. BTW, she actually DID fire 100% of the teachers at Central Falls High School up there, so she upped the ante considerably over that measly 85%.
I understand she does not suffer union fools gladly, so I’m going to get a bag of popcorn, open a beer and settle in to watch the sparks fly when she gets here.
Mike, if you’re going to quote me, I’d ask that you do so accurately. The statement I made was actually “but that’s education politics.” which is strikingly different from “but that’s education.” And the former was an entirely accurate statement – the politics of education has attracted a group of individuals that seems intent on increasingly unhinged and paranoid rhetoric and tactics that are certainly not civil. That is not to say that reasonable people can’t disagree and conduct civil dialogue, and certainly there are those on the opposite end of the spectrum from my worldview who are capable of doing so. Also accurate was was my observation about the ad hominem, red herrings, false dichotomies, genetic fallacies, slurs, poisoning the well, guilt by association and other logically incoherent reasoning consistently deployed by this particular crew. To point this out is to simply poke holes in bad reasoning. The TPS school board (elected representatives) made a hiring decision, and a group of activists wanted them to scrap all of that and start over. Whether you agree with Gist’s hiring, this would have put the board and the district in an untenable position, as any realist would understand. On top of this, there was a strong element of “othering” in the rhetoric around the run-up to Gist’s hiring. They weren’t even willing to give her a chance. And as if to prove my point about unhinged rhetoric in education politics, a blogger (and school principal) this morning picked up your inaccurate quote and then let fly with spittle-flecked invective – thus ironically providing exhibit A for the logically fallacious, ad hominem attacks and schoolyard bullying tactics deployed by some that marked the TPS hiring of Deb Gist – http://www.viewfromtheedge.net/?p=5445
Considering who Gardenhire worked for, and considering the reputation of the person she is attempting to defend, her rude, immature, and inane statements regarding the protesters should not be surprising to anyone with half a brain.