Where has all the money gone, long time passing

Where has all the money gone, long time passing,
Gone to profits everywhere, long time passing,
When will we ever learn,
When will we ever learn.

Accountability matters, and so does the stealth robbery of funding for our public schools.
In the late 1990's Former Secretary of Education William Bennett saw a potential 250-billion-dollar assessment market.
NCLB and Race To The Top more than doubled on that prediction.
Public school students use to be test three time in the past. Once in Elementary school, once in middle school, and once in high school. This is still the way it is still done by most nations. Especially the nation's out scoring America on international assessments.
Let me play with the math a little. We have about 53 million children in our public schools. It takes some 13 years to complete a child's public education. In 2015 NCLB and RTTT first 53 million children completed their public-school journey.

In my day those children would have taken national/state exams three times costing about 300 dollars per child. Now when we calculate it out for 53 million students it come to somewhere around:
300 U.S. dollars per child over 13 years. Time that by 53 million = 15.9 billion U.S. dollars A massive amount of money. Testing in our public schools has always been a lucrative business.
Now people stay with me people? Under NCLB and Race To The Top testing when from 3 standardized tests to some 112 standardized tests per child. No one in the Department of Education wants to put a number on the cost of those 112 Standardized tests that children take during their 13 years in our public schools. But, heck let me take a shot at it for them? Let us say buying these tests and paying for the scoring equal somewhere around a 100.00 a pop.

So that comes 11, 200 U.S. dollars for every child during their public-school experience. Sure, sounds like a great deal of money. In most districts that equals what many schools spend to educate a child. Now we don't want to stop people. We have to take that 11,200 dollars, and times it by 53 million to fully see the cost of testing in our public schools. That comes 593.6 billion U.S. dollars for every generation of children that pass through our public schools. That is over 45 billion dollars for every year during a child's public school experience.

Where have all the art teachers gone,
Where have all the music teachers gone,
Where have all the Special Education teachers gone,
Where have all the Reading Specialists gone,
Where have all the school councilors gone,
Where have all the school social workers gone,
Where have all school nurses gone,
Where have all Gym teachers gone,
Where have 540 learning days gone,
Where have all teachers gone,

Gone to 112 Standardized tests everywhere, long time passing,
Where has all the money gone, Gone to profits everywhere, long time passing,
Where have all our school house smiles gone, long time passing,
Gone to tears everywhere, long time passing,
When will we ever learn,
When will we ever learn.

Parents, students, and teacher must Fight For Six, before ESSA robs another generation of hundreds of billions of dollars on useless testing.
Fight this insanity,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to listen to what tune inspired this walking man on his walk this morning in the rain...its Pete Seeger singing “Where Have All The Flowers Gone” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1t...

I stand with the Chicago Six Teachers

When Public Education punishes teachers for standing up for the children they teach? Then that system is corrupt.

When teachers are punished for being the "Mediums of Action for children, parents, and our local schools the system is broken.
John Dewey said: “It is advisable that the teacher should understand, and even be able to criticize, the general principles upon which the whole educational system is formed and administered. He is not like a private soldier in an army, expected merely to obey, or like a cog in a wheel, expected merely to respond to and transmit external energy; he must be an intelligent medium of action."

When we punish a teacher like Chicago teacher Sarah Chambers for advocating for the students she teaches, for the community she teaches in, and for her fellow teachers? The message is clear! Our children do not matter, Our parents do not matter, And public education becomes a system of abuse. Sarah is not alone in being punished in Chicago. There are 5 other teachers currently suspended for being vocal advocates for their schools and students. Let me say their names: Kevin Triplett, Joseph Dunlap, Laura Sierra, Jessie Hudson, Jose Contreras. Below is a link to video statements from these CTU hero teachers. Please click it, and also understand this is going on all over our nation. http://www.ctunet.com/rights-at-wor...

Chicago is trying to shut down any opposition from teachers who risk being Dewey’s “Medium of Action.” They are teachers brave enough to criticize a corrupt public school system. They are being punished for rejecting silence and compliance with inequity and injustice in Chicago’s public schools.
We can support them. Here are the two simple things they like us to do:
Call Claypool at (773) 553-1500 and the Board of Ed at (773) 553-1600 and demand that they stop targeting teachers for standing up for their students.
Defend and support the CTU Six and other teacher advocates by promoting the #CTU6 hashtag and #CTU6 content on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

I salute the Chicago Six, for their courage and commitment to the children they teach, to the communities they teach in, and for being our “Mediums of Action.” This isn’t about unionism this is about teachers being punished for advocating for the children they teach, and the public schools they teach in. When we remain silent and apathetic to systems of abuse we become tools of oppression.
I stand with the Chicago Six,
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to know what this Walking Man listened to on his walk this morning...its..Rebel Diaz song “Chicago Teacher” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yN...

I'm walking with Rebel Diaz's words inspiring my every step. Thinking and standing with my Chicago brothers and sisters in their struggle against that CPS System of Abuse! 

"Homey I was taught by a Chicago teacher!
Chicago teacher, Chicago teacher!
I learned to read and write from a Chicago teacher,
So I’m inspired by the fight from our Chicago teachers!" 

"The teachers are tired, the students dumbfounded,
the budgets get cut so classes are overcrowded.
Streets full of violence, the blue code of silence
so imma keep rhyming til salaries start rising!
The unions uprising! takin to the streets!
The workers are United so the Mayor's got beef!
Rahm's a fake pretender with a corporate agenda"

How many tears must fall, before it's equal justice for all

A Bridgeport teacher speaks up after another unarmed teenager of color is shot dead. Please read the link below?
https://educationct.org/powerful-message-bridgeport-teacher-wake-police-shooting-kids-need-help/?fb_action_ids=1617947171579089&fb_action_types=og.comments&subscribe=success

No parent of a 15-year-old should hear the words your son was shot today by the police although he was unarmed. He laid bleeding to death alone, hand cupped, and without any medical attention. With not one single person holding his hand as he died. This should not be the norm for anyone's son. Justice should never be we were scare, and decided to shoot first ask questions later.

We know this can stop, we know it can be done differently. In New York City last week, a drunk driver killed an innocent 18-year-old girl, injured 28 others, and jumped out of his car and started attacking people physically. He was arrested not shot.

If we say we should teach young people respect in our schools and in the home, then that lesson should not be, to Black sons you are black and you'll be treated differently by the police. As long as this is the lesson Black parents have to teach, then justice is not equal in America. Respect should begin with regardless of your color, your immigration status respect is equal treatment by the police.

As a former high school teacher, I have felt the pain of losing students to violence. It rips your heart out. That empty desk every day is a reminder of what should never be. We all understand that for their families this will never go away.

Any school curriculum that does not address this norm of injustice in our society every day is a curriculum without meaning. If curriculum that does not address the fact that young boys and girls of color are arrested, convicted, treated brutally, and shot by our police in vastly higher numbers is meaningless. Any curriculum that chases test scores, and not justice is meaningless to the youth of our nation. A curriculum void of justice is no curriculum, but what Marcus Garvey called mental slavery.

Respect should begin with every person regardless of their color, every one should be treated the same under the law. Anything less is disrespect to fairness and justice. This is not only a Bridgeport problem, this is a nation crisis.

All Prayers to Jayson Negron's family, to all Bridgeport families, and for every Bridgeport teacher.
Respectfully,
Dr. Jesse Patrick Turner



Dear Lord, hear my prayer that someday we won't have to march for justice for all. If you like to hear what this Walking Man is listening to on his walks these its...Rhiannon Giddens "Better Get It Right The First Time" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VftPiNjaas