Jeff Bryant of the Education Opportunity Network congratulates Arne Duncan for saying that there was “no excuse” for states that fail to fund their schools.
Jeff was quick to point out that the “no excuse” mantra is customarily used by Duncan and other corporate reformers to blame teachers for low test scores.
It is refreshing to hear the same rhetoric directed at governors and legislatures that abandon their responsibility to fund public schools.
Bryant writes:
“In his statement to the Pennsylvania officials overseeing the Philadelphia mess, Duncan urged, “We must invest in public education, not abandon it.”
“So yes, “No excuse.”
“When valued neighborhood schools are shuttered with no more justification than a press release, there’s no excuse.
“When public school administrators are forced to cut learning opportunities that keep students safe, healthy, engaged, and supported. No excuse.
“When teachers and parents have to speak out to prevent larger and larger class sizes…
“When students walk out of school because their favorite subjects and teachers are cut…
“When whole communities have to turn out into the streets to protest the plundering of the common good…
“No excuse. No excuse. No excuse!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sorry, the elite, wealth abandoned “the common good” long before charters came along. Diane Ravitch and others of similar wealth/status have sent their children to private schools since the 1800’s. Others moved to suburbs that developed after World War II.
And then we have Diane and others who vigorously promoted the “neighborhood school” which in many cases has long ceased to be, in cities, a place where students of different races and income levels attended public school together.
Indeed, we have suburbs who have hired detectives to keep out children whose families can’t afford to live there. Any criticism from Diane Ravitch about that?
Research also shows that in many cities, public school teachers are more likely to send their children to schools other than urban public schools than the overall population.
Click to access Fwd-1.1.pdf
Millions of low income families understand that this is just rhetoric. That’s why they are seeking options.
Of course poverty has a negative impact. So does joblessness, so does homelessness. It’s outrageous that in some states far greater sums/per pupil go to suburban than urban schools
But the push for neighborhood schools is not a solution for poverty. The insistence on options only for the wealthy is not a solution to poverty.
Some recognize that schools can play a huge role in help reduce poverty. More and more parents of urban low income kids recognize this too.
Schools cannot solve all the problems in our society. That is an impossible task. Read this oped piece written by a principal (40 years of public school service) in a K-8 elementary school in Bridgeport, CT.
Until ALL institutions work together and stop blaming one profession nothing will change.
The more you promote this one mantra Joe, the more YOU are the status quo. The more you mention where Diane’s children attended school, you just appear spiteful and petty.
Power closing……kids who are college and career ready will need affordable colleges and jobs when they graduate or is that also for the teachers to solve?
Children need a vision for their lives. But they also need someone who can help them see that vision and believe in it. Many parents living in poverty do not have the luxury of a vision for their children because they are struggling to survive day to day. They talk about college but can’t describe what college looks like. They want their children to have a better life but do not have a vehicle for achieving the life they long for. Often, it is a child’s teacher who creates that vision for the child and her parent, who plugs the child into contests, performances, trips and educational experiences — the teacher who creates the reality of possibilities for children and their parents so that they know what the world has to offer them.
But if, by some miracle, all of us — the government, private enterprise, average citizens and schools both public and charter — all of us finally got together and pooled all the resources necessary to truly educate all the poor children in the United States — African American, Puerto Rican, Chicano, Appalachian, the sharecroppers, the coal miners, the unemployed auto workers, and the immigrants from countries all over the world — and if we finally educated all of them and all of them could speak Standard English, and all of them had mastered the fine points of social protocol and all of them had graduated from college — would the corporate leaders of America who blame public schools for all of our woes, would those corporate leaders have jobs waiting for those children? You do the math.
http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Ann-Evans-de-Bernard-Focus-on-test-scores-misses-4662379.php
Linda, I agree that schools can not solve of society.” The horrible verdict in Florida is a reminder that there are many areas in which work is needed.
However, then you wrote, “Until ALL institutions work together and stop blaming one profession nothing will change.”
Fortunately, many educators disagree and are working hard in the knowledge that they can make a big difference.
No!
ONE institution cannot solve: homelessness, poverty, crime, mental illness, domestic abuse, drug and alcohol abuse, soaring college tuition, affordable college loans, unemployment, greed on Wall Street, corrupt politicians, extreme income gaps. It would take government, all schools, all citizens, all private enterprises ALL working together and not dumping all of these issues on public schools and teachers.
Many educators disagree and this may be news to you Joe, but you don’t represent the entire profession in our country. This “reform” charade WILL be the shame of our nation.
http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Ann-Evans-de-Bernard-Focus-on-test-scores-misses-4662379.php
Many people work hard Joe making a difference everyday..not just those you associate with….as though those who disagree with you are slackers and hacks.
Notice how NYS, Chicago, Philadelphia, and D.C have mayoral control? What else is common between these cities? Abandonment of public education and the needs of these communities and children.
There is a link above to an article entitled “Where Do Public School Teachers
Send Their Kids to School?” It is by Denis P. Doyle, Brian Diepold, and David A. DeSchryver. Date: September 7, 2004. It is available courtesy of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
In the interests of fairness, I again provide the link: http://www.edexcellencemedia.net/publications/2004/200409_wheredopublic/Fwd-1.1.pdf
It should be made clear that this builds on an earlier piece by Denis P. Doyle entitled “Where the Connoisseurs Send Their Children to School: An Analysis of 1990 Census Data to Determine Where School Teachers Send Their Children to School.” This appeared under the auspices of the Center for Education Reform.
I found this link to the second piece under The Heartland Institute: http://heartland.org/sites/all/modules/custom/heartland_migration/files/pdfs/3756.pdf
In addition, see Gerald Bracey, READING EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH: HOW TO AVOID GETTING STATISTICALLY SNOOKERED, 2006, in WORKS CITED, p. 177.
Bracey described the above organizations [among others] as being groups that “produce literature whose ‘data’ supposedly supports the destruction of the public schools and the establishment of a free-market school system” [Bracey 2006, p. xvi]. Hence, the two articles are advocacy pieces for predetermined conclusions. **While Bracey was considered an acerbic critic of the education establishment, I think his characterizations of the aforementioned organizations are accurate and mild.**
I urge all viewers of this posting to read pp. 29-31 of Bracey 2006 in a section he entitled “Throwing Readers Off the Scent with Rhetoric.” He directly refutes the main claims in (and tenor of) the two abovementioned pieces. He uses them as good examples of why his readers should heed #4 and #5 of his “Principles of Data Interpretation”: “4. When comparing groups, make sure the groups are comparable” and “#5. Be sure the rhetoric and the numbers match.”
Don’t take my word for it. Don’t rely on anyone else’s word. Read all three for yourselves. Make up your own minds.
For Duncan, Joe, et al: http://www.nznotforsale.org/public_html/nznotforsale.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/dat1-194×300.png
Love it. I shall share and send it far and wide. Even tweet to Arne.