Friday, August 25, 2017

Trump and Moskowitz--Soulmates

I'm fascinated reading about Eva Moskowitz and her new book. I'm not the first to blog about it, and Jersey Jazzman has a great piece on it. I want to thank him in advance for the quote and commentary I'm reproducing here. This is about Kate Taylor, who wrote a particularly devastating piece about the Moskowitz Academies.

"Now I’m going to share with you some facts about Taylor and her editors that I fear may come across as an ad hominem attack but I hope you’ll ultimately conclude isn’t," Moskowitz writes.

She then reveals that Taylor attended a private high school, and that her editors either attended private schools or grew up in the suburbs, suggesting the Times’ journalists are incapable of understanding the black and Latino children who disproportionately attend Success schools

So here's the thing--an ad hominem argument is when you attack the person rather than the argument. That's exactly what Moskowitz is doing, while openly and shamelessly pretending not to. It's a logical fallacy and has no validity. I don't know--do you think minority students should be forced to test-prep until they pee their pants?

Is Times reporter Kate Taylor ignorant of that answer because she attended private high schools? Or is the argument itself inherently racist? I attended public high schools and I find it appalling. I wouldn't want my children or yours, or anyone's deprived of a bathroom when they needed one. I'm a public school teacher and subject to chancellor's regulations. I can tell you if I regularly made students pee themselves, I'd probably be fired. Campbell Brown would call for my head if I weren't.

In slamming people and passing that off as argument, Moskowitz is very much the mirror image of Donald Trump. How many times has Trump called out Obama? His primary opponents? Megan what's her name, formerly from Fox? McCain? McConnell? Who can even count who else? When Trump gets called by the press, it's "fake news." It's the "failing New York Times." Never mind coming up with an argument that supports the name-calling. Just repeat the fallacy, stoke opposition, and hope people believe you.

Moskowitz also goes after Juan Gonzalez, who wrote pieces exposing how buddy-buddy she was with then-Chancellor Joel Klein. I remember very well reading these pieces and being completely unsurprised. Here we are with this dual school system--one with rules and another where they just take the city's money and do whatever they want with it. And what do they accomplish with that?

Of course, it depends who you ask. Moskowitz is all over the press claiming that her system is wonderful. But I'll turn again to Jersey Jazzman with a detailed report on how Moskowitz Academies are different from public schools. Imagine the kind of test scores your school would have if you basically got rid of students who didn't make the cut. How many charters has Gary Rubinstein exposed that claimed 100% college acceptance, but somehow dumped and failed to replace 60% of the students with which they began?

Moskowitz also goes after Mayor Bill de Blasio. De Blasio openly opposed charter schools when he ran, and was elected overwhelmingly. He was going to block a few Moskowitz Academies, but Governor Andrew Cuomo came riding in on his white steed and changed the law for Moskowitz. If de Blasio doesn't provide space for the Moskowitz Academy, he has to pay their rent.

So basically, mayoral control means it all comes down to the mayor. He makes decisions about everything, unless he bucks Moskowitz. Then, it's completely unacceptable. In this, Moskowitz reminds me of Trump once again. Trump only respects the law if it benefits him. After Trump trashes Mexicans, a Mexican-American judge can't fairly judge him. After a judge rules against his Muslim ban, he's a "so-called judge." The law is what I say it is, when I say it is, and that's that.

Moskowitz didn't want to agree to any stinking rules about pre-K. At first she canceled her program rather than agree to the rules everyone else had to follow. But she fought it, and evidently is winning right now. After all, why should students have to wait until they're six years old before having the right to pee themselves?

I'm right, they say, and all my detractors are wrong. Only I can fix this problem. Oh, and I'm not a racist, even though I'm affiliated with people who are. Trump and Moskowitz. Made for one another. Eva is Trump with better hair.
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