Well, Damn

The interwebs are currently blowing up with reaction to the Vergara verdict in California which, and there's no way to soft-pedal this, rips the guts out of tenure and seniority for teachers. If this stands, we will all be at-will employees soon enough.

My default setting is to assume that people mean well, or at least mean to do what they believe is right. I find it kind of rage-inducing to encounter people who willfully lie and destroy, who feel justified in simply declaring themselves heroes for blowing up an orphanage. I don't know what could possibly be going on in their brain, and I have to assume that they know they're full of baloney but they don't care. They are going to punch you in the nose and lie about it because they can and it makes them feel-- I don't know- powerful?

So when She Who Will Not Be Named or Students(never)First or DFER start tweeting about how this is a victory for students and equity, my blood pressure goes up because-- really? Really??

If they are so concerned about equity in California schools, where was the lawsuit to force the state to redistribute tax dollars so that poor schools have the resources they need? Oh yeah-- that would mean that rich folks would have to foot the bill to educate Those People, and that's the last thing we want.

What we want is to break the teaching profession, so we'll say we're protecting excellent teachers.

We want to impose the will of billionaires on the state, so we'll use some teenagers as set dressing. "Victory for students" my ass.

We want to create a lower-tier school system for the poor, so we'll call it equity.

We want to cut the poor off without a cent (because, Those People), so we'll call this social justice.

I mean, bloody hell, guys? Do we all have "stupid" written on our foreheads? Can you not even do me the respect of telling me convincing lies?

It's like talking to that kid in the third row who just punched another student in the face and is now sitting there smiling, laughing and saying "I never touched him" with that fish-eating grin that says, "Go on. I'm lying straight to you, and you're not going to do anything about it because my dad's on the school board and-- oh yeah-- you don't have tenure."