Valerie Strauss here writes about DC Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s plan to close more DC public schools and hand off more students to charter operators.
Ironic that one of the possible charters is K12, the online for-profit charter corporation that has a 22% graduation rate in its Colorado Virtual Academy and may lose its charter in Georgia for the poor services it provides to special education students.
It’s clear that Henderson, a protege of Michelle Rhee, is not competing with charters. She is throwing in the towel.
This is not competition. The public schools have no leader in this battle for survival.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We have to have a campaign that involves educators, parents, superintendents, school board members, city council members, small business owners… from both political parties.
We have to find a way to expose to the public at large the perfect storm occurring under the guise of school choice for corporate profiteering;
• overall dismal performance of for profit charters longitudinally
• divesting, instead of investing in our kids and their futures all in the name of profits for CEOs…. billions of tax dollars over the last decade siphoned from higher performing public schools to lower performing for profits
• loss of connection to community for our kids, the heartbeat of the community is gone when the public schools close… no band, orchestra, sports, spaghetti dinners, drama performances, etc.
• on-line education with increased class sizes and fewer teachers alienates our kids emotionally and gives them no support and guidance for navigating the stresses of growing up in today’s society, whether they be normal stresses of adolescence or traumas and deprivation experienced in their daily lives.
• lower high school grad rates costly to society down the road… higher unemployment, growing poverty levels, higher crime rate, more prisons, higher addictions, mental health issues, higher birth rates, the cycle continues.
Time is running out….
Destroying public education is what TFA – of which Henderson is an alumnus – is all about.
When every school in DC is a charter or online workhouse, how will they juke their statistics? There’s no more creaming when you’ve privatized the entire district. But, then again, you’d need a press that does something other than reprint reformer’s press releases to inform the public of the deception and looting that is going on.
When you say k12 do you mean Amplify the company founded by Rupert Murdock? S
Sent from my iPad
K12 is the corporation founded by the Milken brothers. They may be doing business with Murdoch’s Amplify.
Yes, K12, founded by felon Michael Milken and compulsive gambler and morality blowhard William Bennett.
Quite a provenance.
Seems that Ed gambled and won on this one.
A niece Washington Monthly piece on his $500 a pull slot habit and 2 month $1.4M loss from a decade ago.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0306.green.html
Jonathan Turley- GW Constutional lawyer and scholar weighs in on DCPS. It seems to be a free for all of late. (27 comments so far)
D.C. Schools Post the Lowest High School Graduation Rate In The Nation
Michelle Rhee is the astroturf head of “Students Last” not “Students First.” Using “Students First” is as Orwellian as it gets. With them every word they use to get to their real meaning use the opposite meaning work and then you have the truth. Did you know that she only taught for three years and was not a very good teacher and at least once put tape over her students mouths? Also, she gave up custody of her own children. Are we supposed to listen to a woman like that who only cares about her own career not her own children? She is anti student and teacher. She will not talk about the total lack of accountability of administrators only rhetoric on teachers. She does not believe in due process for teachers. In 1997 I had an audit of LAUSD concerning “Teachers being Falsely Charged with Child Abuse for Whistle Blowing.” This audit is California State Auditor, Oct. 1997, 96121. Today the situation is worse. A friend of mine has a data base of teachers falsely charged of illegally fired without due process of around 600 teachers. My experience is that they are the best teachers as they had these charges for defending their students.
If administrators were charged according to the California law concerning reporting of child abuse and interfering with investigations many would be in jail and lose their careers. Why doesn’t Rhee and her cohorts talk about this travesty? Reason is simple. Administrators are the ones who give them the money and charter schools and do their bidding which is really the bidding of their financiers. It is all about money and how easy it is to buy off these astroturf people and organizations.
The deafening silence of the part of pundits and others who lionize her is just amazing. No one seems to want to address or acknowledge her swarmy and unseemly past. At the ripe age of 42 she has penned her memoirs. Too bad we can’t copy this and annotate them. (I see remainders and promotional/bulk buys/giveaways for this “seminal” (one of her favorite words) classic.
Via WaPost/Valerie Strauss -Updated: Michelle Rhee writes a ‘zealot’s manifesto,’ er, memoir.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2012/11/29/michelle-rhee-writes-a-zealots-manifesto-er-memoir/
P.S. You failed to mention her role in KJ’s shenanigans at St. Hope and the IG investigation.
This only goes to prove you can’t trust politicians. The people voted Fenty and Rhee out because of this.
FYI on the Hawaiian story….Teachers at one school started a protest simply because many teachers are leaving the profession due to the low salary. On top of that, they got a 5% pay cut in their last contract. So a group of teachers started a movement where one day a week, they will only work to the rules. And when the last bell rang, they would go out and protest. This movement started a few weeks ago, and now more than 50 schools across the state of Hawaii have joined in. This is NOT a union protest. It was started by teachers with the support of students and parents.
Here is the latest article:http://www.staradvertiser.com/s?action=login&f=y&id=181496001
Since you need to log on to this newspaper, you can find the full story here:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/hawaii-teachers-work-to-the-rules/star-advertisers-article-on-november-29-protests/301957053237722