Poor Errol Louis. He just seems to keep on stepping in it and his bereft of any independent thought.

The shame he must bring on his hometown of New Rochelle.

When we last left Errol Louis on these pages we had noticed that he had become the "Kool-Aid Man." Now, after reading his column in today's Daily News we know that the supply of Kool Aid packets worldwide will decrease for some time.

This is becoming too easy to take his "arguments" apart but The Crack Team wish to have some fun tonight so we are having a go of it.

Errol starts off of course without any facts...as usual when he puts all the onus on the unions. This year, that number is expected to soar, thanks in part to an organized campaign by the state teachers union and its political allies to persuade parents to have their children opt out.

Political allies? Like whom? If he means the grass roots parents, REAL grassroots, not like his pals at Families for Excellent Schools, StudentsFirst, Educators4Excellence, and new kid on the block, High Achievement NY but advocates that started from a single person, a real life mommy, a smart person.

For instance New York State Allies for Public Education, Diane Ravitch, Stop Common Core in New York State, the plethora of personal blogs, and let's not forget the many, many Facebook pages in which so many are using their own time and their own monies to do a service for now monetary gain whatsoever. Why isn't "Journalist" Errol taking the time and speaking to these people? 

"Journalist" Errol prattles on; First and foremost, parents should guard against allowing their movement to get hijacked by the money and political clout of union officials, whose motivation and ultimate goals on this issue are very different from those of parents.

Actually NYSUT was late to the game, about a few years late. Yeah, parents should wonder what took them so long and why only now are they on the bandwagon but since they are we welcome them with open arms. But ultimately the goals are the same.

Heck, what about the millions of dollars that Governor Andy has pocketed for the benefit of 9 billionaires?

More bloviating from "Journalist" Errol;  a new law, passed by the Legislature and strongly backed by Gov. Cuomo, that makes test scores the basis of tougher evaluation standards intended to detect poorly performing teachers and steer them out of the classroom.

A new law yes. And also a bad law. Tougher evaluation standards? Has "Journalist" Errol seen what happened in Atlanta because of the reliance on the tests? Has "Journalist" Errol read the New York Times and their story of Eva? Michelle Rhee? The suicides? Can "Journalist" Errol explain the algorithm that is used to determine whether or not a teacher is effective? What about the outside evaluator? Who is paying this person? Who is training this person? Does this person know the intricacies of the teacher and the students he is to evaluate?

"Journalist" Errol digs himself deeper; “We have 20% right now. We’d be happy with zero, because it’s not a true indicator of what’s going on in the schools,” said Magee.
“Happy with zero” means the union would just as soon not have its members’ job security or prospects for promotion affected in any way by whether the students have actually learned reading, writing or math.

No. Not just on ridiculous tests created by a company that only is in it for a profit and pushed by politicians getting paid off. 

But "Journalist" Errol rails against bad cops. How would "Journalist" Errol make sure we get rid of bad cops? 

The blabbering goes on; the union’s strategy — backed by groups including the Working Families Party — is to cripple the evaluation system by encouraging so many kids to opt out that the tests won’t represent a reliable sample.

The kids are not making the decisions the parents are. And is "Journalist" Errol saying the parents are too stupid to think on their own, to make an informed decision? 

That’s not the same agenda as parents, who simply dislike the stress and lost classroom hours that inevitably come with prepping for a high-stakes standardized test.

"Journalist" Errol just contradicted himself. But the NYSUT and the educators of this state have the same agenda as the parents. The parents also know the tests are not the way to evaluate the teachers of THEIR children!

The blithering is ceaseless; Cuomo vowed to revamp teacher evaluation systems that he dismissed as “baloney” because nearly every teacher gets rated as effective...

So what will Governor Andy do next year if the same happens? 

Now, for a minutes it seems that "Journalist" Errol gets it; Magee’s response? “The truth is, there’s no epidemic of failing schools or bad teachers,” she said in a statement responding to Cuomo. “There is an epidemic of poverty and underfunding that Albany has failed to adequately address for decades.”

Let's look and compare in "Journalist" Errol's hometown of New Rochelle, NY. Former home of Bob Petrie, former head write of the "Alan Brady Show," and former home of Yankee legend Lou Gehrig. 

The North End of New Rochelle has some of the richest real estate in Westchester County.  Now let's compare it to the Washington Ave and 5th Ave areas of the city. Lots of poverty. Lots immigrants. Lots of ELL's.

The two middle schools, Albert Leonard and Isaac Young are not zoned. But at the north end Albert Leonard in which 376 students who are economically disadvantaged took the the ELA exam only 21% were proficient. So is it poverty, second language learners or teachers? Same teachers, same schools. 

IT'S POVERTY! And lack of English. And so much much more.

"Journalist" Errol ignorantly claims that people must...realize that high-stakes testing is, for better or worse, the norm in our complex modern society. Universities base admissions decisions on SAT and ACT scores; graduate schools do the same with LSATs, GREs, MCATs and more.

And virtually all Civil Service employees, be they firefighters, bus drivers or entry-level sanitation workers, must pass a high-stakes standardized test to get the job. The legal and medical professions famously require exams of punishing difficulty, as do architecture and aviation

Please, don't compare. These tests are not used to destroy someone's career. These tests are not out to trick you and they test questions make sense. 

Students have plenty of tests in school do know how to get ready for grown up tests. But they can worry about getting this practice in high school and college, not THIRD GRADE!!!

These tests are not about helping students are evaluating where a students in academically. The tests the way they are being used now is basically twofold. One, to jam teachers and the other is for Pearson to make s***loads of money. Nothing more, nothing less. 

The assessment of a student starts and ends at home. Want to know how and what your child is doing in school? Ask him or her. Ask their teacher. Discuss with your child what their school work is and what they are learning. Do the same with the teacher. Show up in school when you should. Speak to other parents. Go to PTA meetings, come to open school night, volunteer. Doing all these things will get you the lay of the land of your child's school and knowing what your child is doing in school. 

Wouldn't this be easier, get teachers back to educating our students full time, and be a heck of a lot less expensive? 

One wonders if "Journalist" Errol really has any journalistic chops or curiosity left in him and whether he fancies himself a journo-celeb nowadays or just a talking head.

One can wonder what "Journalist" Errol might be getting under the table to write such drivel.

One can also wonder if "Journalist" Errol puts his money where is mouth is and why he won't answer in regard to this tweet;

By now we should all know who Errol Louis of NY1 and the Daily News works for. Not for truth, but for
those that distort the truth.

I at one time had thought the Errol was above the fray, that he had integrity and wished to give both sides of the education debate equal time. I will never forget when he had Julie Cavanagh on his NY1 show debating Little Evan Stone of E4E in 2011. I watched and felt that Errol had sifted through the BS of Evan and allowed Julie to give her side.

But lately he has become a shill of the deformers. A badly misinformed shrill. I guess this is par for the course for someone who grew up in New Rochelle, went to a great high school, went to Harvard, Yale, and Brooklyn Law, and mingles with the hipsters in Park Slope. Yes, Errol is just oozing educational cred. Do we dare say that Errol is an elitist?

Errol this past Thursday wrote a column for the Daily News in which he shows just how clueless and ignorant he is when it comes to education.

Errol blabbers forth; Thursday’s sure-to-be raucous education rally, to be held within shouting distance of the Tweed building and City Hall, is a timely reminder of a civic force that many of the city’s progressive leaders seem incapable of understanding...

We here at SBSB believe they understand it. These aren't the parents that are forming these protests, nor is it the communities. These protests are led by inane, self-absorbed, me first, **cough cough** EVA MOSKOWITZ **cough cough**. When we see these parents clamoring for a better education ON THEIR OWN ACCORD, as the people protesting for democracy are doing in Hong Kong, or the students in Colorado clamoring for a real AP social studies curriculum  in Colorado, then we'll talk.

Errol says; Wednesday’s speech by Chancellor Carmen Fariña, centered on an announcement that the Education Department will scrap the old method of assigning letter grades to individual schools, could be a step in the right direction 

We here at SBSB are proud of Errol for not flying off the shrilling from the mountain top like ignorant others over at Mona Davids Parents Union.

...but the administration appears to be dragging its feet on attacking the urgent problem of turning around schools that are badly broken

Broken? How so? Specifics. Real specifics. Yes, the test scores suck, but why? Is it just the teachers or is it the crappy curriculum teachers are forced to deal with? Is it the cycle of poverty and mental health issues that never get addressed that our students have to deal with every day? Is it crime? Is it a lack of funding? Is it a lack of leadership at Tweed and at the schools? Tell us Errol in your own words, using your own investigatory facts, WHY ARE THE SCHOOLS BROKEN??

While Thursday’s rally isn’t pushing specific demands, it’s clear the organizers are warming up for a battle to raise the current limit on charter schools in the city.

That's what it is all about. Not the broken schools, not the teachers, just more and more and more and more charter schools and more and more and more and more halves against the have nots.

But the main thrust of the gathering is to show that there is a large and vocal number of New Yorkers fed up with poorly-performing schools and impatient with the litany of excuses for why we can’t do better.

But Errol just said the rally was all about charter schools, so why is he contradicting himself? Again, is this movement organic? NO!

The chatter from those defenders on social media sites and letters to the editor usually includes talking points about how poverty is the true culprit

Yeah it is. See above, it is one of many. Think about this Errol. Take the teachers Albert Leonard Middle School in New Rochelle and switch them out with teacher from IS 162 on 149th and St Ann's Ave in the Bronx. What do you think will happen? 

But Errol has more to say on this and he feels he must insult teachers; Those old arguments, repeated year after year, have grown stale. Most airline passengers don’t know how to fuel and fly a jet or run an air-traffic control tower. But they do know when plane after plane is dirty and cramped, arriving late at the wrong destination and occasionally crashing.

This isn't fair. My cat can take apart this argument. But what the hell.

Please do not compare what teachers do to fueling a jet plane. Yes, these guys work hard and I am sure there is a learning curve, but really? Now, if we were compared to these guys fueling a plane than I might say, "touché."

But how about this? Does Errol want a pilot or an air traffic controller that has had only 50 hours and five weeks of training when he is jet setting around the USA? Doubt it. Does he want constant turnover of air traffic controllers and pilots? Doubt it as well. 

But his argument that the public does know when a plane is dirty or cramped or late has a lot to do with how an airline is run, yes, the MANAGEMENT! Why not then does Errol and his ilk kvetch about WHO IS RUNNING THE SCHOOLS? And Errol is being quite specious with his last argument. Seriously, how often does a plane land at the wrong destination? And crashes? How many crashes of American commercial jets have there been the last ten years and what is the ratio of mechanical vs pilot errors?

What Errol fails to point out is that the people who fly our planes, design our planes, and guide our planes have training in planes. Also, flying, designing and guiding is evaluated by OBJECTIVE MEASURES, not the whim of some untrained, irrational human being. 

Come on Errol, tell us all how to fly a jet, or guide a jet over LaGuardia, or design one. Yeah, I hear crickets too.

And let's not forget that pilots, air traffic controllers, and flight attendants are all proud union members.

Families for Excellent Schools, the group organizing Thursday’s demonstration, has compiled a number of damning reports 

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We know, and we care. But see above arguments. Again, FES is a front organization for FormelyMichelleRheeFirst. Yet refuses to put into context and show how it came to this statement; 

A school where nine out of 10 kids can’t proficiently read or do math does not simply ‘need improvement,’

A recent Associated Press report notes that the nation’s top 10% of income earners have increased spending on their kids by 35% in recent years — pouring a fortune into private-school tuition, bidding up home prices in districts with high-performing schools and paying so much money for extra help that some SAT tutors now make over $50 an hour.

SAT tutors are only making $50 an hour? I guess the ones making that kind of dough are getting hosed. But I will like to see this AP report. Where is it? But if true, I can guarantee that the parents sending their kids to private schools are doing it to keep the Common Core away from them, to keep them from testing, and for smaller class size. Why isn't Errol advocating for what parents really want? For what Errol wants for his own kids yet won't admit it to others. 

I used to have respect for Errol. I thought he was objective and can see and respect both sides. But he has drank from the Kool-Aid trough for too long and is useless. Nothing more than a shrieking shrill.

One more thing. The problems Errol is whining about are the same problems that permeated the 12 years of the Bloomberg reign. Where was he during those 12 years? Bought off by Bloomberg?