RheePulsive, RheePugnant, and Rheevolting

Mouth-taping, achievement-exaggerating, bullying, arrogant, and downright dishonest darling of education "reform" Michele Rhee will probably be on NPR a lot more in the future now that she's started her own "advocacy"/lobbying organization called Students First. Who can resist someone who loves children so much that she's willing to attack teachers to prove it? Amazingly Oprah loves her, while Diane Ravitch (who once peddled Bush's No Child Left Behind snake oil) doesn't.

But if you're someone who ignores policies that drastically benefit the wealthy and increase poverty (which is the single greatest factor in ruining the educational opportunities for EVERY child) and instead focus on destroying the rights of job security won by unionized educators, then NPR has lots of airtime for you. In fact this past week Michelle Rhee was the NPR star on Wednesday's ATC and Saturday's ATC. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join em: l

Tales from the Slick Adventures of Students-First Lady

If it Talks Like a Fox

(disclaimer - graphic is slightly altered from the actual screenshot from NPR)

His name is Larry Abramson and he counts like a FOX:

On Saturday's ATC,. Referring to the thousands of anti-union protesters who came to Madison - and were massively outnumbered by pro-union activists - Abramson said, "But today, as you mention, there were thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of Tea Party supporters and other supporters of the governor's plan,..." Talk about just making crap up.

and he talks like a FOX:

On Sunday's Weekend Edition he crowed that "supporters of Governor Walker...brought in some Tea Party firepower." He said, "One local remarked he'd never seen so many conservatives gathered at one time in notoriously progressive Madison." And according to Abramson, the Capitol building in Madison isn't an important symbol or platform for getting labor's message across any longer; it "has turned into what amounts to a giant performance space."

Well dang, if it counts like a FOX, talks like a FOX, and scoffs like a FOX - it must be...an NPR reporter!

Crash Test Dummies

If you haven't been reading the Q Tips (open thread) of late, you've missed some excellent commentary on NPR's coverage of the Big Three Auto Crisis/Bailout. I think it's worthwhile to put some of it here - and add a few more links to boot.

Woody commented that NPR has featured Senator Richard Shelby in it's coverage of the Big Three's request to congress. Woody writes that, "Shelby is critical of efforts to save the 'Big 3.' The story quoted him extensively, without ever mentioning that Shelby was NOT an honest commentator: Alabama's auto business--Honda, Hyundai, and Toyota all have (non-unionized) manufacturing plants in the State." As Woody pointed out in another comment, Crooks and Liars exposes how the corporate owned/leaning media has refused to exposed what a hypocrite Shelby actually is.

Another reader, War on War Off, provided this great link to Jane Hamsher's piece at Firedoglake pointing out the truly massive government subsidies provided to the foreign automakers in the US.

In NPR's Friday ME report Frank Langfitt states:

"But other senators remain skeptical, especially Richard Shelby from Alabama, the committee's ranking Republican....some critics of the Detroit companies suggest they should head to bankruptcy court. There, they say, a judge could enforce the tough, painful restructuring necessary for the firms' survival."

Since Langfitt brings up the elusive "some critics" recommending bankruptcy, it's worthwhile to consider another Crooks and Liars link regarding what is not said when Republicans (and Frank Langfitt) suggest the crash test of bankruptcy as a solution.

It's really too bad that all things are never considered on NPR, because the big three crisis offers a rare opportunity to explore the complexities of auto energy efficiency, union work, labor, wages, tax subsidies, previous bailouts, and - of course - the relationship of the auto crisis to the health care crisis.

Concession Stand

(Graphic from CRAP)

As the UAW faces a summer of negotiating major new contracts with US automakers NPR could have used this as an opportunity to look a the range of opinions regarding labor strategies and tactics in the current environment of predatory global capital, nonunion southern auto plants, and health insurance ripoffs.

Instead Frank Langfitt limited the discussion to how pragmatic and necessary concessions are.
Yesterday's ATC and today's Morning Edition focused mainly on how UAW president, Ron Gettelfinger, is so grown up and reasonable (though others would disagree). Here is what we hear about Gettelfinger:

• "instead of railing against the company, Gettelfinger went to work making changes in the plant and improving the product."
• "...brings a needed sense of realism as the union bargains with companies staring into the abyss."
• "... a sophisticated person."
• "Instead, the word that keeps coming up when you talk about Gettelfinger is pragmatic."

Langfitt does briefly mention that some workers are concerned. He says, "Like other workers, Parker wants Gettelfinger and union leaders to put up a fight. Parker says that if they keep giving up workers' benefits it undermines the union's very reason to exist." That was on ATC yesterday, but this morning we get the following interchange with another autoworker:

Langfitt: "...like other workers, Henry's resigned to concessions."
Henry: "We've been getting and getting and getting, and we may have to give a little back, it's as simple as that."
Langfit: "But he also thinks if Gettelfinger, the union president, makes too many concessions, workers will reject the contract....and yet the consequences of that could be even worse....the companies will just ship jobs to low cost countries."

See, unions have just been "getting and getting and getting." In fact according to Langfitt (and the conservative George Will) In earlier decades, when Detroit dominated the market, the United Auto Workers got great benefits for their members and built a virtual WELFARE STATE. Now the companies are trying to dismantle it." That is some loaded language. I'm looking forward to NPR's balancing this with describing the auto executives as setting up a virtual extortion ring! I think I'll be waiting awhile for that one.

Some good alternatives to this pro-concession reporting can be found at: Labor Notes and Counter Punch.

60 or 20 or 8.5?

On Wednesday morning NPR turns its business sights on education. Featured is RAND author and academic researcher Dan Goldhaber. Renee Montagne notes that Goldhaber's research "says the link between teacher quality and student performance is so critical, schools have to experiment with ways to encourage better teaching..." Larry Abramson then begins the report by saying , "For a long time school systems have paid more to teachers with advanced degrees or lots of experience but education researcher Dan Goldaber of the University of Washington says there’s still no reason to believe that approach will boost student achievement." This is followed immediately by Goldhaber telling us, "Seems like the best way to figure out the quality of a teacher is based on her or his performance in the classroom, and if you want to reward that characteristic then you have to look at somehow linking pay to their performance."

What is interesting in all this is that if you look into Goldhaber's research, you'll find that even he admits that "students’ socioeconomic background was a far more influential factor" in student achievement. In fact, from a presentation Goldhaber gave in Minnesota, it would appear that this socioeconomic factor represents 60% of the influence, while all the variables that schools can control represent 20%! Then within this 20% of influence on student achievement, teacher quality accounts for about 40% - and the percent of "teacher quality" that can be measured is only 3%.

What is glaringly obvious is that "teacher quality," while important, is small (Goldhaber's research puts it a 8.5% of effect on student achievement) in comparison to the whopping 60% effect of socioeconomic factors. So the obvious solution for better education is to find ways of improving the socioeconomic health of the nation (more just income distribution, universal healthcare, available childcare, etc). Instead NPR and Goldhaber keep the focus on the idea that the best solution is merit pay for teachers (with that pay attached to student performance on standardized tests). So once again, it is teachers - and especially those pesky teachers' unions - that are the targets for curing the shortcomings of our public education system. God forbid we question the basic social and economic structures of our society, that might smack of class analysis!