via: Common Dreams

Noted intellectual Noam Chomsky, author and activist Naomi Klein, and education historian Diane Ravitch are among those urging the U.S. Senate to reject President Barack Obama’s pick for the next education secretary, saying the policies he’s supported “have been ineffective and destructive to schools, educators, and most importantly students.”

Their concerns are outlined in a letter published by the Washington Post on Thursday.

Obama’s choice is John King, who’s held the position of Acting Secretary of Education since the departure of Arne Duncan. King has already received an “astounding pass” from the Senate education committee last month, as ValerieStrauss wrote in an earlier story for the Post. At the hearings, he “was not asked one single direct question about the tumultuous 3 ½ years he spent as the commissioner of education in New York state. Not by Republicans, and not by Democrats,” she wrote.

King’s critics have previously pointed out that he was a teacher for a mere three years, has been a fervent supporter of charter schools and high stakes testing, displayed “autocratic behavior as state commissioner of education [which] spurred a massive parent opt out from state testing,” and was hit with the charge of being “responsible for more attacks on public educators than almost anyone else.”

The new missive against his holding the position, which was also signed by award winning author Jonathan Kozol, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, and the Network for Public Education, charges, “John King is the wrong candidate and he will follow the failed strategies of Mr. Duncan.”

It was penned in great part by 20-year old Nikhil Goyal, author of the just published book, Schools on Trial: How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice.

Goyal told Salon that the letter is “yet another sign of the growing resistance in the United States against corporate, neoliberal reform — school closures, standardized testing, and Common Core standards.”

He also said,”[King’s] agenda is just as terrible and oppressive as the former Secretary Arne Duncan,” adding, “This country needs a secretary of education who will help bring some sanity into our classrooms, not a lackey of the corporate machine.”

The letter is posted in full below:

To the U.S. Senate,

As educators, students, parents, and activists, we are writing to strongly urge you to reject the confirmation of John King, President Obama’s nominee for the Secretary of Education. We believe he is the wrong choice for the position.

Research and evidence demonstrate that the education policies that John King has supported throughout his career, such as the Common Core standards, the collection of private student information, and high-stakes standardized testing, have been ineffective and destructive to schools, educators, and most importantly students.

As New York State Education Commissioner, he was an unapologetic supporter of the Common Core standards and inBloom. His policies failed. While test scores are flawed metrics, in 2013, just 31 percent of students in New York passed the English and math standardized tests, the first tests to be aligned to the Common Core and in three years the scores have barely budged. The achievement gap grew. Last year, over 200,000 students opted out of the tests.

Educators, parents, and students as well as the state teachers union and other public education advocacy groups called for King’s resignation. His style is inflexible and he is quick to criticize the motives of those with whom he disagrees. He persistently refused to consider the desperate pleas of students and teachers who were reporting that the Common Core and value-added teacher evaluations were not working.

The American public deserves a Secretary of Education who will advocate for their interests, not those of the testing corporations who profit from the Common Core. We also deserve a Secretary who respects the importance of schools governed by communities, not by federal mandate.

Senators should not be misled by vague promises to do better as King offered at a recent hearing. John King is the wrong candidate and he will follow the failed strategies of Mr. Duncan. We strongly urge you to reject his nomination and recommend to President Obama that he nominate a candidate who will bring a progressive perspective to the department as it implements the Every Student Succeeds Act.