I don’t understand this story.
It says that “civil rights groups” demand that Arne Duncan turn down a request for a waiver from a group of districts in California.
Since high-stakes testing invariably ends up with poor and minority kids at the bottom of the bell curve, it is hard for me to understand why civil rights groups would demand more of it.
Since accountability typically means that schools enrolling the neediest kids get closed, why would civil rights groups want more of it?
Since high stakes accountability invariably means that those who teach the most vulnerable children are likely to be fired, why would civil rights groups want more of it?
One possible answer to the puzzle is that Democrats for Education Reform is listed as a “civil rights group.” DFER is an organization created by Wall Street hedge fund managers to promote more charter schools and more testing (but not necessarily for those who teach in charter schools). Just recently, the California Democratic Party singled out DFER and StudentsFirst as fronts for Republicans and corporations.
Maybe this letter to Duncan is DFER’s revenge on California. (DFER recommended Duncan to Obama for his job as Secretary of Education.)
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here’s an interesting question: did ANY of these “civil rights” organizations seeking “equity” write letters supporting Gov. Brown’s new legislative initiative to provide poor districts with more State $$$? Did any of them spend money campaigning for a lifting of the tax lid that finally happened in California… a true reform that resulted in more revenues being available for public schools? I’d like to be surprised and learn that the answer is yes…
Liam Kerr, the Delaware state director of DFER, is married to Kyle Kennedy, daughter of the late Michael Kennedy. How long before we hear that JFK would have supported for-proft charters…
DFER and the Education Trust are civil rights groups? Well what do you know. I wonder what they’ve been consuming?
Mark, Mr. Odious never enters my space.
Man, you’ve got me with that comment. Maybe I should get out a little more often. Mr. Odious??? Clue me in please.
If I remember correctly, NCLB and its testing regime were sold on the basis of the stated aims for such being a type of accountability that would allow the nation to see if schools were meeting their obligation to teach all, to provide equal opportunities for all. The testing mechanisms were, supposedly, designed to offer objective “data” that would show which schools were “failing” and which were succeeding. So, to criticize those who were sold the NCLB bill of goods is foolish when the criticism should be directed at the sales people, those who made the pitch and used their clout to push the legislation that a susceptible because desperate public bought.
The same people who made the hard sell and got people to by their junk now need to speak to they consumers of the crap and tell them that it was all a fraud, that the pushers of the bad policies are shamed by their bad behavior and now understand the nature and extent of the damage done.
In other words, there are important people out there who need to come clean, not so they can be identified and condemned, but so that people who bought can better understand the tactics and not be tricked again into buying heavens that turn out to be hell.
Let’s face the facts. Look at who finances all the civil rights groups. They are all controlled by corporations, foundations and/or wealthy individuals. If you cross them they pull their funding and you are out of your cushy job, good clothes, fine meals, plane tickets and free nice hotel rooms in one sweep. DFER is not a civil rights group. They are the take away your civil rights group just like Students First is really Students Last. I am lucky enough to be the Director of Policy for the Congress of Racial Equality of California (CORE-CA). The founding King Family of L.A. has over 114 years of continuous civil rights. In the 80’s Celes King III saw the civil rights groups being controlled by the aforementioned groups. He legally separated CORE-CA from CORE. Celes King III was a Tuskeegee Airman, Army Air Force General, advisor to three presidents and the first bail bondsman in 1947 to write bail bonds for civil rights leaders nationally. I was priviledged enough to accompany Celes King IV to the last Tuskeegee Airmen convention in Riverside and met many of them. We do not take their money. We are truly independent and therefore we can make decisions on the merits without outside influence. We have real credibility as a result. We do our homework and base our decisions on knowledge and what is good for the community not for any other reason. This is a rarity today, independence. Just look at who funds what organization and then think about it. We are seriously into education, transportation and the criminal justice system Education and the criminal justice system are linked together as the failures in K-12 show up in the criminal justice system. You can watch Gloria Romero and DFER at a press conference where they stumble when we ask real questions. This is on George1la as is the full uncut Michelle Rhee last year in L.A. 24th Street at LAUSD is coming to You Tube soon also as is some of the corporatizers at UCLA where they prevented any discussion of anything counter to privatization and corporatization up to calling in the campus police to prevent such. That is truly intellectual, isn’t it. What was revealed is that D.C. is 40% charter now. In D.C. charters receive $13,000 less than regular D.C. schools. This means that someone got an extra $274 million. Who or where it went “Who Knows?”
“Who Do You Trust?” and why.
What I find somewhat amazing about the letter itself is that its tone is entirely punitive. It makes no mention of the substance of the CORE proposal (and I’m sure the authors would find lots they like in it, probably all the stuff that I find problematic). Instead, the letter declares that California – being “unwilling” to demand the labor concessions, new testing regimes, and so on that make for a waiver application – be left to suffer under NCLB.
So it seems to me that this is less about the children and more about making sure that California serves as an object lesson for states that jump off the Common Core/high-stakes testing/union destruction.
LULAC and NWLC are the only two organizations that might be considered “civil rights.” That said, NWLC is not a membership org, and while LULAC is, they tend to skew pretty conservative (and that’s old-school conservative, not nut-job tea party conservative).
But the fact that they called themselves civil rights organizations, but didn’t have any of the recognized orgs sign on raises some questions. Where is MALDEF, or NAACP, or for that matter LCCR?
Getting really tired of these neoliberal advocacy folks trying to claim the civil rights mantle.