Last Friday, Randi Weingarten and I wrote a letter to Secretary Arne Duncan, urging his immediate, public intervention to save public education in Philadelphia and to protect the children from massive budget cuts. We hope and believe that the Secretary’s actions might persuade Governor Corbett and the legislature to do what most Pennsylvanians want them to do: save the schools and save the children.
The letter was delivered to the Secretary at the end of the day on Friday and released to the media this morning.
This is what we wrote:
June 28, 2013
The Honorable Arne Duncan Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202
Dear Secretary Duncan,
We are writing to ask for your urgent intervention to preserve public education for the children of Philadelphia.
Due to draconian budget cuts, the public schools of Philadelphia are being starved to the point where they can no longer function for the city’s children. Philadelphia is in a state of crisis. We believe your direct and public intervention is required to ensure the existence of educational opportunity in that city.
The cuts imposed on the schools by the School Reform Commission and the state have led to layoffs of nearly 4,000 educators and school employees. This will have a permanent, crippling impact on a generation of children.
Philadelphia’s children will lose art, music, physical education, libraries and the rich learning environments they need and deserve. Everything that helps inspire and engage students will be gone. The schools will lose social workers, school nurses, counselors, paraprofessionals and teachers. Classrooms will be more crowded, denying children the attention they need. Sports and extracurricular activities will be gutted as well as after- school programs that help keep kids safe and engaged. And children will be denied the social, emotional and health services they need. All of these cuts, on top of the mass school closings, have a disproportionate effect on African-American students, English language learners and students from low-income families.
Third-grade teacher Hillary Linardopoulos told us that her school, Julia de Burgos, a North Philadelphia K-8 school, is getting an influx of 250 students due to the mass school closings, while at the same time the school is being forced to lay off a third of the staff.
The Andrew Jackson School, a vibrant neighborhood public school, is losing school aides, its counselor, its secretary, its security monitor, several teachers and even its music teacher, who worked tirelessly to find resources and seek donations for the school’s celebrated rock band. And they won’t have money for books, paper or even the school nurse.
The Kensington High School for Creative and Performing Arts has a beautiful dance studio, but it is losing its dance instructor, plus nearly a dozen other staff.
The budget bludgeoning of these schools and the gutting of their programs are likely to cause students to drop out. When public officials send students the message that they don’t matter, that their education is of no concern to those in power, students get the message and give up on themselves and their dreams.
Right now, the Pennsylvania Legislature is set to pass a budget that fails to adequately fund schools while at the same time dedicating $400 million for a new prison and pushing through a set of tax breaks for corporations. This is on top of $1 billion in education cuts over the past two years.
The Legislature is prepared to ignore the pleas of thousands of students, teachers, parents and community members who have called on the governor and Legislature to fairly and adequately fund Philadelphia’s public schools. A group of Philadelphians are so concerned about the impact of these cuts that they’ve been on a hunger strike, having exhausted every other option to get the attention of the governor and state Legislature.
The people of Pennsylvania do not support the abandonment of the children and public schools of Philadelphia. According to a recent poll by Lake Research, voters want the governor and Legislature to increase the funding of public schools.
Secretary Duncan, both you and President Obama have spoken numerous times about the importance of investing in our schools, teachers and students. The children of Philadelphia need your support now.
On behalf of the students, educators and families of Philadelphia, we ask you to publicly intervene. Reach out to Gov. Corbett and the state Legislature to seek additional funding for Philadelphia’s schools. Do not let them die. The children of Philadelphia need your help. Do not let them down.
Sincerely,
Randi Weingarten
President, American Federation of Teachers
Diane Ravitch
Historian, New York University
Great letter. However, I’m still not at all convinced Arne reads things that aren’t written by Gates Himself.
Where is the “data” that shows/proves Arne can actually read? I want “artifacts”!
Or would that be “Arne-facts”?
Let’s not hold the bar so high. I’d just like to see Arne talk while Bill Gates drinks a glass of water.
Blarneyfacts.
Oooh, Arthur, good one!
When did Randi Weingarten ‘get religion’??? I’m glad to see her association with YOU, rather than her former capitulation to the corporate right…
Weingarten’s collaboration – her term, not mine – with so-called education reformers is unchanged.
With all due respect to Diane, this is just more of Weingarten’s political triangulation with the membership, offering some sound bites she can refer to when teachers challenge her betrayals and catastrophic leadership.
Hey, how do you get that “Honorable” as part of your title? Does it come with the appointment? If so, is it an admission that Arne was not actually honorable when he was out destroying Chicago schools as CPO?
It’s a formality . . . .
If the Pennsylvania legislature refuses to increase funding, should the Fedearal Government step in and either require some minimum level of funding from the state or offer to fund Philadelphia schools itself?
But is that not a “big government” approach?
It is certainly a question about which level of government should make decisions about school finances.
I don’t understand.
The federal government should be stepping in and doing this because . . . . . . ?
Dr. Ravitch asked and the students in Philadelphia would be better off if the Federal government stepped in.
Perhaps they should since the feds have helped to starve schools out and make them perform like dogs begging for treats.
Randi Weingarten needs to be fired. I’m sorry to be so blunt. She’s done more harm than good. We need a true leader, not a politician.
I am of the same mind. I think that Diane is playing a bit of politics in associating with her; that may be distasteful, but in as much as it may be effective in bringing about some positive change it may also be a good idea. Or not.
Their aim is to privatize this district. Just look at the so called solution to the cleverly crafted crisis by the powers that be has for Philadelphia’s public schools:
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130701_Corbett_reveals_rescue_plan_for_Phila__schol.html
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20130701_ett_endorses.html
It will be a total pile of junk when they are done.
I absolutely wil not criticize Diane’s partnering with the ever dubious Randi Weingarten. I know Diane feels it’s better to have her in one’s court than not simply because of her position and so called clout.
I honestly don’t know if this is an advantageous or ineffective strategy, but I trust Diane’s sagacity and years in the field as an education historian as well as her good intentions and political savvy. One can’t say that these don’t factor into being an advocate.
But I will say this to those who read the blog: Randi Weingarten is a mastermind at blowing with the wind and jumping on the “tugs-at-the-heart” bandwagon.
It is wonderful that she wrote this letter with Diane, and I’m sure she means what she said. Weingarten is not a liar. . . never has been.
But she has pushed, as a triangulator, different truths at different times with different people. She is an expert differentiator, and IF one really follows her writing and speeches, this painting of a thousand different colors, hues, styles, and textures becomes all the more obvious. Some will say this is lying; others will see it veers in its direction.
So let’s celebrate this critical letter and hope the Secretary takes it seriously and acts upon it.
But let’s not for one minute think that Randi Weingarten will ever jump off the reformer bandwagon (she can’t if she is to keep herself and the AFT in business) or be consistent with one main position that centers itself around opposition and confrontation.
Weingarten is not particularly concerned about teacher turnover as a result of this junk science method of evaluating teachers.
Why?
The bottom line is that as teachers leave the system and new ones enter, the position itself still obligates the teacher to pay the union dues . . . . .
With Weingarten, buyer beware:
If Weingarten really wants to show she is committed to public education, she can return to the classroom. She can teach.
And we’ll see how well she adapts to the type of “reform” she has supported.
Excellent! Ditto for the policy makers.
Robert Rendo: I agree. We are in a war to save public education and there are going to be a lot of judgment calls. Agree with Diane’s action or disagree with it, but please consider the following:
Randi Weingarten is not doing this because it is to the advantage of those of us who are fighting for a “better education for all.” She is doing this because Diane Ravitch speaks for/gives voice to a large and rapidly growing group of vocal opponents of so-called “education reform.” That includes a growing number of the very people “represented” by Ms. Weingarten. The numbers are increasingly coming to favor us, so if nothing else she is engaged in damage control. And besides that: why not have her sign on with Diane to a public letter to the Secretary of Education? Attract as much attention as possible to the letter. Good tactic! Make it harder for the education establishment to ignore it.
It is another indication that the tide is very slowly, very painfully, but noticeably changing in our favor. When the edubullies are forced to deal with the megaphone for decency and honor that this blog has become, it signals a shift so massive that even the edufrauds can’t ignore it. And honestly, folks, many of them aren’t the brightest bulbs in the pack.
“Find out what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” [Frederick Douglass]
With our help, Diane will continue to FIGURE out how to disturb the CALCULATIONS of the edubullies and their ACCOUNTabully underlings [for the VAManiacally satire challenged: a numbers/stats joke].
Who knew an ex-Asst. Secretary of Education could be such a troublemaker?
🙂
Krazy TA:
Agreed!
To count on Randi for anything substantive or consistent is afoolish move, but to use her as a strategic maneuver to get something bigger and more virtuous done is a good move.
Thank you for pointing these things out.
It appears PA will kick in $140 million to Philly schools. (http://blog.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2013/07/alas_poor_corbett_we_knew_him.html)
This would have never been a problem had the governor left in Rendell’s changes to school finance that had created a progressive rather than regressive system and charter schools were not allowed to essentially steal money from local districts. PA has one of the most inequitable school finance systems in the country and the fiscal mess in Philly and other districts is an indication.
Estimates by ed finance people suggest at least 90% of all PA districts will be in tyhe red in three years, largely because of charter school transfer payments (charter schools get far more in payments than what thy spend on actual education costs) and pension obligations (which the state and districts punted down the road when the market was blazing hot).
The STATE did not actually kick in $140M. They are contributing $15.7M – $60.7M.
–There is $15.7M new money from the state.
–Another $45M might come from a state loan that the federal govt might forgive, but it has huge strings attached: The State Secretary of Education gets to unilaterally decide if the district has enacted “reforms that will provide for the district’s fiscal stability, education improvement, and operational control” or no money. NO ONE knows what that means or what criteria the Secretary will decide to use.
–The state is also telling the city to tax itself another $50M by extending a 1% sales tax for another year (so that’s not money from the state, it’s from the CITY).
–The state is also allowing the city to borrow $50M against future revenue in 2013 (so this is likewise not money from the state, it’s from the CITY)
–The state also passed 3 bills to enable the city to better collect $30M it is owed in delinquent taxes (so a 3rd item that is actually coming from the CITY, not the state)
To summarize:
The state is guaranteeing $15.7M, and at most might contribute $60.7M. (Their ask was $120M.)
The city is expected to collect $80M in sales taxes and collections on delinquents, and to offer another $50M by borrowing against future city revenue, which would total $130M. (Their ask was $60M.)
http://bit.ly/12ABljd
http://bit.ly/1cH6jMj
“PA has one of the most inequitable school finance systems in the country and the fiscal mess in Philly and other districts is an indication.”
You’re right!
And the same goes for Florida.
Pennsylvania is not kicking in $140 million. Only $15 million is part of the new PA budget. Most of the rest is from already existing city and state taxes.
$45 million is from a loan which the federal government has decided to forgive. Unfortunately, the Governor is now saying that money will only be released if the union agrees to certain “reforms”. No need to explain that here.
Stay tuned to see how much of this $140 million actually finds its way to the schools.
This is the perhaps a key point to focus on with Duncan, not that I expect much from him. (I’m really restraining myself here with my writing). Federal money in effect (ie, money which the federal government is making available by forgiving it) is being used to enforce so-called “reforms”. This is disgusting.
(parent of just-finished 5th grader in Philly public school)
Paul Vallas left Philadelphia in 2007 with a budget deficit of $733 million (the “oops” that got him fired), leaving the actual available budget approx $400 million less than it was nine years earlier when his predecessor, Supt. Hornbeck, was canned via takeover for telling the legis he would require fiscal assistance or have to end the school year early.
Reform puts districts in much worse financial condition than they were in before.
Vallas also did a real number in Chicago with his 1995 pension trimming that produced phenomenal problems come 2006 and beyond.
Links to follow.
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/1998/06/01/philadelphia-schools-face-state-takeover
http://articles.philly.com/2006-12-12/news/25398676_1_paul-vallas-dropout-rate-fund-balance
Yes, Mercedes!
These guys are rewarded for wrecking and plundering.
Now that the bill comes due, they are onto the next restaurant, gorging themselves and then trashing the premises.
Someone arrest them . . .
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-11-16/news/ct-met-pensions-deals-20101116_1_pension-crisis-state-pension-debt-retirement-funds/3
Correction (my decimal was dropped): $73.3 million deficit in Philly.
Was it purposeful or just total incompetence? Just curious.
Using one credit card to pay another. A short term fix only without thought for casualties.
I do not believe anyone in Vallas’ position can make these terrible decisions other than intentionally.
A superb letter, indeed! BUT, to say it will fall on deaf ears is an understatement! It’s like the chickens asking the wolf to become a vegetarian…Arnie, dumb as a brick as he truly is, WANTS public education to disappear, so, hearing it’s disintegrating in Philly, will NOT cause concern…merely high 5’s with his corporate, charter school cronies.
Here’s the crux of the letter to Arne Duncan, which also happens to be the key component of corporate-style “reform:”
” the Pennsylvania Legislature is set to pass a budget that fails to adequately fund schools while at the same time dedicating $400 million for a new prison and pushing through a set of tax breaks for corporations. This is on top of $1 billion in education cuts over the past two years.”
Randi Weingarten bought into the nonsense. She signed on to the Common Core standards, and all that goes with it. Now, she’s trying to remedy her error.
But it’s too little, and far too late. Arne Duncan is in the corporate “reform” corner. And in fact, he’s been urging the Business Roundtable and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to do more to push the Common Core.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pressed this canard: “Common core academic standards among the states are essential to helping the United States remain competitive and enabling students to succeed in a global economy.” The Business Roundtable has resurrected the “rising tide of mediocrity” myth of A Nation at Risk, saying (falsely) that ““Since the release of A Nation at Risk in 1983, it has been increasingly clear that…academic expectations for American students have not been high enough.” And Arne Duncan parrots what they say.
As I’ve noted previously, the alleged goal of corporate-style education “reform” is “economic competitiveness.” All the supposed “reformers” cite it. But the U.S. already IS internationally competitive. The World Economic Forum ranks nations each year on competitiveness. The U.S. is usually in the top five (if not 1 or 2). When it drops, the WEF doesn’t cite education, but stupid economic decisions and policies.
When the U.S. dropped from 2nd to 4th in 2010-11, four factors were cited by the WEF for the decline: (1) weak corporate auditing and reporting standards, (2) suspect corporate ethics, (3) big deficits (brought on by Wall Street’s financial implosion) and (4) unsustainable levels of debt.
Last year (2011-12), major factors cited by the WEF are a “business community” and business leaders who are “critical toward public and private institutions,” a lack of trust in politicians and the political process with a lack of transparency in policy-making, and “a lack of macroeconomic stability” caused by decades of fiscal deficits especially deficits and debt accrued over the last decade that “are likely to weigh heavily on the country’s future growth.”
And this year (2012-13) the WEF dropped the U.S. to 7th place, citing problems like “increasing inequality and youth unemployment” and, environmentally, “the United States is among the countries that have ratified the fewest environmental treaties.“ The WEF noted that in the U.S.,”the business community continues to be critical toward public and private institutions” and “trust in politicians is not strong.” Political dysfunction has led to “a lack of macroeconomic stability” that “continues to be the country’s greatest area of weakness.”
The current corporate “reformers” worship at the altar of “free” markets. They do so despite the lessons of history (the Great Depression and the Great Recession being two prime examples in the U.S. alone within the last 83 years).
And they do so despite still unfolding market-rigging scandals in the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) – which affects several hundred trillion dollars of assets and loans – and the ISDAfix, which is “a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.”
The emerging evidence is that some of the world’s biggest banks and trading companies gamed a “market” of some nearly $400 trillion of these trades, and not in favor of the public. Not surprisingly, some of the very same players (corporate and individual “investors”) were engaged in both the LIBOR and ISDAfix scandals.
Even more recent disclosures reveal that traders and bankers have rigged the foreign exchange (FX) market, one that involves daily transactions of nearly $ 5 trillion, which is “the biggest in the financial system.” As one analyst noted, this is “the anchor of our entire economic system. Any rigging of the price mechanism leads to a misallocation of capital and is extremely costly to society.”
See: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-11/traders-said-to-rig-currency-rates-to-profit-off-clients.html
The corporate “reformers” say not a word about any of this. They pretend none of it has happened, or is occurring presently. And that’s simply unacceptable.
The public education system in a democratic republic is supposed to develop and nurture democratic character and citizenship. That’s the foundation of American public schooling; that is its core mission. And that is precisely the kind of reform direction we need.
Sorry Randi Weingarten. Arne Duncan has already sold out, and let public educators down. So have you.
Beautifully put!
I feel Diane that you have earned all our trust and Randi has not. She needs to stay this course and come out and say what she is fighting for specifically.
You have done that, you’ve explained your change in philosophy, apologized for past regressions and atoned for that by basically giving every inch of yourself to this cause.
There is still so much bitterness associated with Randi, at least for me. It’s very powerful to say “i was wrong, I’m sorry.”
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has pressed this canard: “Common core academic standards among the states are essential to helping the United States remain competitive and enabling students to succeed in a global economy.” ”
To heck with the freakin’ (is that a word?) global economy! I want my little people to love learning and learn to think and ask questions and be able to find the answers and find interests and become creative (and know a run-on sentence when they see one). The rest will follow if they have not been mind-numbingly test prepped and tested for thirteen years.
The letter to Arne Duncan is powerful and heartfelt. Children should never feel the budget cuts that will hurt their future. But, I am trying to understand why would anyone think that Arne Duncan, who is school-tone deaf to the concerns and issues surrounding our nation’s schools, would show any emotions let alone read the letter.
His heart is made of stone and I have yet to see a stone cry.
Diane, we appreciate your efforts regarding public education but forget Arne. He is the epitome of what we’re fighting against.We, public Ed supporters have to be the force behind the change to true Ed reform.
don’t appeal to Duncan, DEFY him!
He’s too busy getting Pitbull’s autograph.
Sent from my iPhone
There are multiple federal cases waiting to be made with respect to inequitable school funding for minority children. Some state formulas for school funding inherently discriminate against urban school systems (systems already top-heavy with administrators and consultants, preventing funds from reaching classrooms and individual schools). It should be easy to prove that the bulk of minority children are being deprived of resources needed for even a minimal program of education.
It wouldn’t be a big leap to demonstrate systematic starvation of some urban public school systems for the purpose of establishing more privately run charter schools, resulting in substandard services for the kids that remain in the public system. Civil rights statutes and the equal protection clause could be brought to bear in this instance.
Either the federal government needs to bring suit against cities and states that allow a two-tier or even a three-tier system that’s unequally funded, or Congress needs to address these issues. (Democrats run the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, and they should be holding hearings, inviting Jonathan Kozol and other informed voices–instead, they’re tinkering with NCLB.) Alternatively, the Department of Education could withhold funds from states and school districts that don’t comply with the letter and spirit of existing anti-discrimination laws.
I’m not a fan of Randi Weingarten, but the letter makes sense, and the basic thrust of it could open a new front in the fight for public schools. Obviously, it isn’t just Philadelphia that needs help. So do Chicago and many other cities, along with much of rural America, including the tribal areas that tend to be overlooked: https://custom.cvent.com/ED23A7C6C86A46A5835DDA7C20D07226/files/34cb3ff018ca4f94805003c73ebcbe6b.pdf
The report cited above might be an eye opener for some. It’s just one more indicator that the main problem of American education is inequity, pure and simple.
This letter is meaningless legally as there is nothing the Feds can do on the local level. There is no federal guarantee to equitable education. This has already been decided in the Supreme Court of the U.S. Also, this is just what Duncan and Obama want through their policies and procedures. Why would they change? It sounds nice and means nothing in the real world they live in and are promoting. In reality they do not make the decisions anyway. They are told what to do and they jump when they are told to. Just look at what has happened. I embarassed Duncan in Pico Rivera, half of the people walked out of the hall in disgust with him and he just went on to the fund raiser and who cares. Nice letter, to them, so what.
The letter might be legally meaningless, but the Bill of Rights and federal statutes outlawing discrimination could apply in this case. If it can be shown that a certain group of children is being injured due to official policies that discriminate unfairly against them, then there might be a cause of action. I’m not an attorney, but the Supreme Court has stated that “separate but equal” in public schools is inherently unequal. It isn’t a stretch, then, to say that what’s obviously unequal (differential school funding for rich suburbs and poor urban neighborhoods, or privately run charter school students receiving preferential treatment over public school students) isn’t equal either.
In the current climate, the federal government may not be interested in confronting racial segregation, let alone inequitable school funding for minority children. And sure, Duncan will probably turn a deaf ear to this plea. But that doesn’t mean the inequities aren’t addressable through the courts. And it doesn’t mean the issue shouldn’t be publicly aired.
Duncan is too stubborn and resolute to change. We need to hold our elected officials’ feet to the fire,
I agree with many of the previous posters. Randi Weingarten is trying to get a ride on Diane Ravitch’s coattails. People are getting wise to Weingarten’s political theater which she uses to cover for her collaboration with the forces of corporate education reform, therefore she needs a cover to try to restore her credibility. The sellouts she arranged in Washington D.C., Newark and New Haven are not lost on anyone paying attention.
See the later part of this article to see the record of her collaboration with the Broad Foundation over the last ten years.
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
She’s disgusting, isn’t she?!
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
This letter should be bolded and enlarged on the front page of every newspaper in Philadelphia and throughout the State of Pennsylvania. It should be flown from the back of a banner plane over Harrisburg!!
No shame in this corporate political game of kick the kid and his school to the curb and throw baby out with the bathwater. When you have enough sorted workers for the needed workforce of tomorrow who are those value added students of the charter schools you don’t need to invest money in those who have been measured and evaluated as a lossing investment. When government enrolled in the Broad school of finance and leadership the masses were erased from the column of interest or concern.
This is perverse!!!! If this is not thought of as a life and death situation then people are in denial of the ultimate consequences of this shift in philosophy and redistribution of what belongs to the citizens, not those that believe they own the country and everyone in it.
Where are the organizations like the ACLU and others defending the legal obligations of government with a class action lawsuit for the disabled students who are seeing every Federal Mandate for the Disabled trampled. While these are delayed in meeting their legal rights to FAPE and causing a state of regression which is contributing to their harm of educaltion, welfare, and safety?
FAPE?!!!! What FAPE?!!!!! FREE APPROPRIATE PUBLIC EDUCATION …..REALLY?!!!! What a disgrace this all is!!!
Oops! My Dyslexia kicked in on the word education. Would anybody care or does it really matter? It does to me and it would for a dedicated teacher who thinks every child deserves a chance at a future.
Politics is the art of the possible. I remember once, many years ago, when my mother upbraided me for hanging around with a “bad kid” in the neighborhood.
“He’ll be a bad influence on you,” she said. “He skips school, doesn’t do his homework, and God knows what else.”
My stepfather piped up and said, “Did you ever think that maybe our son will be a good influence on his new friend?” He was right, and I was.