RIDING THE GRAVY TRAIN

Education is organized crime because portions of each of the institutions that work directly with it seem to prioritize riding the gravy train rather than assuring children's needs are being met. The following institutions have proven to show their allegience to the all mighty dollar:

• School Districts
  This web site will be filled with specific examples of how school districts make decisions to ride the gravy train. Over the course of time, we plan to include more and more specific examples of public officials caught in the act of taking us for a ride.
• State Boards of Education
  Teachers from California, New Mexico, Idaho, and Illinois reported documented questionable activity taking place within their state boards. We will be adding specific examples to this section as we gather more information from all over the country.
• Governors
  Teachers from all over the country appealed to governors for assistance with misconduct in the state boards. It fell on deaf ears. We will be adding specific examples to this section as we gather more information from all over the country.
• State Attorney Generals
  Teachers from all over the country appealed to their state Attorney Generals for assistance with misconduct in the state boards. It fell on deaf ears. We will be adding specific examples to this section as we gather more information from all over the country.
• ACLU
  Teachers from all over the country have appealed to the ACLU for assistance with the violations of our Constitutional rights. Rejection has been the standard response, indicating a lack of funds. We find it disconcerting that terrorists have warranted the attention of the ACLU, while teachers, the people who participate in the most important profession in our society, are not worthy of their funds. Some people believe that the ACLU is far more connected to corporations than most people realize. There is speculation that the financially powerful unions maintain business as usual in this arena in the same way the oil companies have influenced government decision making. Our experience suggests this could be correct. We will be adding specific examples to this section as we gather more information from all over the country.
• The Media
  This is an area that has proven to be more disappointing than most teachers could ever have imagined; in their idealism, teachers have thought of the press as the last bastion of truth, never conspiring with the powers that be to alter reality. The hesitancy to believe teachers coupled with the lack of funds to investigate, encourage most reporters to decide against writing articles about teacher abuse. Then corporate America's influence over much of our media eliminates the possibility that stations or newspapers take on the powerful unions. However, there remain some bastions of integrity amongst our press and we hope that NAPTA's dedicated documentation of issues in education will facilitate the press' ability to report the truth about education. We have to believe that the magnitude of the cover up that has been in place for so long is the primary reason media ignores us and that our accumulation of thousands of teacher stories will eventually encourage the media to fulfill their duty to society.
• Attorneys
  Teachers from all over the country have had disappointing experiences with attorneys. Given that there is little money or little opportunity for success when defending a teacher, few attorneys specialize in this area. Attorneys, like businesses, focus on financial gains, and rightfully so; taking on losing cases makes no sense when the fundamental goal is financial gain. Activist attorneys are rare and even more rare in education partially because so few people really know about the dark secrets of education and the dire need to save our children. Until the inner structures of education are exposed, it won't appear that activism is worthy in this area. We will be adding specific examples to this section as we gather more information from all over the country.
• Experts Paid to Testify, Examine, or Judge
  It is reprehensible how many "experts" pretend that teacher abuse does not exist, and testify or write reports that support administrative harassment, as long as it is lucrative. Furthermore, knowing that scrutiny is not likely in education, this field has breeded some of the most contemptible excuses for humans imaginable. We will be revealing their affronts to humanity every opportunity we have.
• School Supply Companies
  It is expected that businesses ride the gravy train as their purpose is to make money. However, their willingness to conduct business under the table or pawn off inferior goods to schools at high prices brought them into that gray area where Enron and World.com were operating in greed. It was hard to jump off the gravy train when everyone else was riding it.
• Teacher Unions
  When I asked my union attorney to sue the Illinois State Board of Education for violating my rights, his response was that it would "poison the well" for other teachers. So the priorty is maintaining a good relationship with the state board rather than asserting teachers' rights. There is something wrong when the advocacy group says we cannot advocate for you or we might make them angry. Rather than all of the above being independent organizations representing different aspects needed to make education strong, they were all part of a fraternity, pledging their loyality to each other rather than to to goals of education.
• Teacher Training Universities
  National University, one of the more highly acclaimed teacher training schools, began a new doctorate program in Social Inquiry or Educational Reform. In 1997, I applied for this program, realizing my days as a teacher were numbered. I figured I could utilize my skills and background in my chosen field, but outside of a classroom where my talents were unappreciated.
  
  I was a paying customer, scored well above average on the Graduate Records Examination, had straight A's in my Master's program at the same school, as well as honors during my undergraduate degree. The intake professor assured me I was the perfect candidate for this as it was a think tank rather than an avenue to a particular job. It was for the idealist who wanted to make a difference rather than the run of the mill opportunist that saturated this profession. However, they turned me down with the excuses that my "situation was too negative" and that I had mentioned in my essay that I might want to work for the government in educational reform someday. This was puzzling since I never discussed my situation with them other than to say that I was disappointed with what I had seen in education, and I had been told there was no job associated with this degree. Did they really believe they would find a person who was delighted with education as is but wanted to spend energy reforming it? I doubt they could have found a more suited candidate than I; it certainly appeared that this new program was a sham to pretend they were concerned about reform while they conducted business as usual.
  
  This shouldn't have surprised me after having been told repeatedly by my professors during my earlier studies that teachers were decision makers, when the total opposite was true. If they didn't know the truth about what was happening in our schools, it meant they didn't care about accountability and that they geered their program to what sounded good. However, I know that many of them did know about the big lie, since NAPTA teachers who have taught teachers at universities have expressed their dismay at having to lie to future teachers, pretending that the position was about meeting children's needs and being prepared to make the decisions necessary to do so. To the degree that the teacher is an idealist, misleading others was disturbing.
  
  Many of us felt like women who had been taken abroad for good jobs only to discover we were part of prostitution slavery outfits. We believed in the ideals we were taught at the university, and then found ourselves trapped in a career that had little carry over into other job possibilities. It should have been a red flag to me that the very university that mislead me to believe that teaching was a profession wouldn't have an authentic program in reform. Unfortunately, I was so impressed with the intelligence and caliber of the professors I had experienced during my Master's program, it simply did not occur to me that they were living the lie too. I guess if the choice is tell the truth and get off the gravy train, the truth rarely happens.
  
  When political decisions govern educational reform, it assures that nothing will change. It appears that the main concern of teacher institutes is keeping administrators happy so they would hire their people, i.e. status quo. Therefore, educational reform, something administrators dread, is not going to happen in reality because it might make administrators angry and take their business elsewhere. Conflict of interest is so built into education, that there is no opportunity for what is right to prevail. The gravy train just keeps circling the tracks around a group of institutions never contemplating taking risks that might make education effective, if it means losing favor amongst this incestuous group. And teacher abuse and the accompanying fear guarantee that the people who hold this profession together with sincere concerns for the children, will remain silent as they labor in the field, outside of the gravy train. Turning in your colleague still does not assure you a place on the gravy train; it simply helps you get out of target range. The gravy train is for those power brokers at the top in the same fashion that many of our corporations offered sweet deals for those at the top too. Our children suffer as a result.
  
  

We welcome your examples to all of the above. E-mail NAPTA

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PREJUDICE