Veteran educator Mike Deshotels writes here about Louisiana’s relentless drive to privatize public education. At a recent meeting of the state board of education, packed with Bobby Jindal extremists thanks to out-of-state money in the last board election, the board continued to approve more charters to replace failing charters.
Deshotels writes:
When questioned, State Superintendent John White “had his well funded astro-turf organizations primed to make the usual appeals to the Board for more choice (privatization) even when their arguments were non-sensical. For example, in the debate over the acceptance of a whole new batch of charter schools for the failed Baton Rouge Recovery District, parents who had been brought in by BAEO and Stand for Children, explained how their children had been poorly served by the previous charter schools in the BR Recovery District and gave this as a reason why BESE should continue to approve more charters!!! Some of us in the audience scratched our heads at this twisted logic and then again when a teacher from one of the defunct charters said that it was time that BESE added stability to the staffing of the schools in the RSD by approving the new batch of charters. This is how it went. Beebie and Hill just kept asking “how does this make sense?” But the votes on our rubber stamp BESE kept going down 9 to 2 for whatever the privatizers wanted.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Replacing closed charters with new ones isn’t a bug… it’s a feature. The privatization crowd believes that a failing school is like a failing business like, say, a restaurant. If they get the right entrepreneur in the location they’ll eventually succeed. They also believe that this is an improvement over the status quo because this kind of close-and-replace strategy— a hallmark of the free-market private sector— is impossible in a “government run” public school. Oh… and this is also a feature of NCLB and RTTT.
And “close and replace” adds so much stability for those children!
“Close and replace” makes as much sense as “trickle down” economics (more rightly named “pissed on economics”-the rich piss on the rest of the us).
Exactly wgersen, fraud is feature not a bug. Education is nothing more than a cost benefit analysis. Check out this “innovative” social impact bond for early childhood education in Utah. Note involvement of J.B. Pritzker co-founder & his brother Tony, of the Pritzker Group, a private investment firm based in Chicago. Penny Pritzker is Obama’s Sec of Commerce.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/08/07/37preschool_ep.h32.html?cmp=ENL-CM-MOSTPOP
The same fraudulent bankers who broke every law in the book, crashed our economy in 2008 with convoluted financial products , is proposing to turn preschool education into a cost-benefit analysis. And it’s doing so with the help of government officials. Note
According to IDEA, failure to recommend or implement an IEP recommendation because of cost is illegal. How will Goldman Sachs manage their risk? Reducing special education costs:”In terms of structuring a deal, I know I can monetize decreases in special education costs,” Translation: denial of costly services by overriding IEP decisions. Who, then makes the decisions to determine if a child needs special education- the IEP team, parents or the investors?
Private corporations guard against any outside criticisms of their policies so what is the role of parent activists & teachers? We’re turning the power of decision making about young children’s education to executives who have no oversight & no accountability. Public/private partnerships are recipes for corruption and secrecy.
I worked in Granite’s pre-school program. There was a lot of drill and kill on letter learning, beginning sounds, and rhyming words. I had two year-olds-in my classroom. Two and three-olds were denied an afternoon nap in this full day program. They were allowed a 20 minute rest period. They had the privilege of resting on a towel on the floor of our mouse infested room.
Well, that sucks. I’m in Utah and I missed this lovely (sarcasm) program in a neighboring district. The problem is that Granite District in Utah is so dang poor, even compared to other districts in Utah, that I guess it will take money from anywhere. Did you know that Utah only spends about $6500 per student per year in public schools?
Special Ed student who left our district to “attend” a virtual charter school for a year just returned to us. His IEP minutes were reduced by the charter school from the original 200 minutes daily to 30 minutes. I wonder who provided those 30 minutes and how??? His mom said he refused to do his work on the computer. A wasted year in the name of “choice”. Who will be held accountable? What effect will he have on his teachers’ VAM scores?
The same thing happened to my son in North Carolina. I ended up pulling him out of the charter school and Home schooling him until we moved out of state. I found a private school that was also subsidized by the public school for children with learning disabilities. I hired an educational consultant and asked him what I needed to do to get my child in this school. I did what it took and got him in. As a parent today you need to be creative and make the system work for you. It is unfortunate but that is the way it works. It is a broken system. You need to find the angle that works for your child. You need to be a strong advocate with a big mouth!!
I think you totally missed my point. The parent thought the virtual charter would fix her problems but only made it worse. She returned to public school because she realized we really did put her child’s best interests first. She came back to public school because we were willing to accept him and teach him, no matter how difficult his situation has become. We accept all children and teach them.
I did not miss your point. I was agreeing with you on your point. Sorry if my story seemed around the corner. Through the public school system my child was placed in a private school setting that can handle his needs that were never going to addressed by the charter school in NC. The public school realized the needs and addressed all his issues on his IEP where the charter school just printed his name on a piece of paper with no services. Sorry if I left that part out. The charter schools are the worst place for a child with an IEP. The public schools seem to address an IEP with more professionalism and accountability. I believe the charter schools are a joke.
I am happy to hear you finally found a place for your child. Sorry for making an assumption. As a special educator, I worry that parents of our children with special needs will be duped into believing charters will help them they leave and return even further behind. I understand the desperation of parents who just want their child to be successful and will try anything.
Diane:
Don’t know if you have seen it yet, but HuffPost published a horrible hatchet job on you by Peter Cunningham. It has most of the usual “reformy” b.s., but then he makes a claim that is beyond the pale: that you don’t think poor and minority students should go to college. I didn’t think they could stoop that low, but it just shows you and all the other parents across the country opposing them are finally making them lash out:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-cunningham/ravitch-redux_b_3768887.html?utm_hp_ref=%40education123
I’d like to ask him why the Obama Administration doesn’t invest in existing public schools.
I’ve written Arne Duncan’s DOE repeatedly and the only response I have ever received is a boilerplate, patronizing dictionary definition on how charter schools are public schools, from one or another “choice” proponent in the administration.
But that wasn’t my question. I’m very familiar with charter schools. Ohio has had them for 15 years. They’re not “new” or “innovative” here.
My question was on investment in public schools, and I’m not talking about yet another metric to grade teachers or Next Generation standardized tests.
If the Obama Administration has abandoned existing public schools, they should say so. Sure looks that way from “the ground”.
I don’t want to discuss charter schools. I want to discuss the 95% of US kids who attend public schools, like my kid. No response from the Obama Administration.
Nothing to worry about there, Diane: comments are running so strongly in your favor and defense, Cunningham must feel like he stepped on a land mine.
true, Michael, thanks for posting
jean
MAP: i did read Cunningham’s words…. He claims to be a specialist in communication? I was a reading comprehension teacher and i taught writing and scored essays. However, I am having trouble interpreting Cunningham’s language….. cf. this quote when he was interviewed about RTTTop here he is telling how he helped Arne Duncan. Would someone please interpret for me? “Hit the open man?”
quote: Cunningham: “Try not to surprise them [the boss]. Give them good ideas. Challenge them — but don’t be obnoxious. And hit the open man – especially if he’s a lefty with a good three-pointer.
interviewer: ” Which was worse — Duncan calling Hurricane Katrina a great opportunity or his coming out for gay marriage (or was there a moment that was even more dicey)?
Cunningham: We definitely regretted the Katrina line and we apologized for it. The gay marriage thing worked out great in the end. “
Yeah, he’s really a terrible writer. He does the reformers no favors.
Diane is really my hero–thank you, Diane for standing up for us and for children. I wish there were more like you…
Interesting that it is never, ever a “choice” to replace a failing charter school with a public school. “Public” is just not on the extremely limited reform menu.
There’s ONE choice for public investment in new or replacement schools in these states and cities, and it’s charter schools, just like there’s ONE choice for how schools are run, and it’s a standardized-test based “no excuses model.”
There are now two districts in Michigan where parents cannot “choose” a public school. The public schools are gone. They have ONE choice; a for-profit charter.
Milton Friedman’s theory on US education is grounded in the idea that one can replace “voice” (democratic governance of public schools) with “choice” (if one doesn’t like the school, one just changes schools). But as public schools disappear, there won’t be “voice” and there won’t be “choice” either, because the chain charters will dominate, just as they already dominate the policy side at both the state and federal level.
I used to joke that I anticipated having to lobby for a “public option” in education, just as we tried (and failed) for a public option in government-subsided health insurance. I don’t think that’s a joke anymore. That could happen.
Please remind me of the names of those two districts.
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It is really bad out there!!! It is truly scary!!!! What all this means is that these politicians are setting back our country to where it was twenty years ago. People in the South need to start standing up and demanding something better!!! If they do not there children will be uneducated and unable to get jobs. This is truly shameful practice!!! This is how you set up poor individuals with no education so they end up in jail. I hope the people of the South are willing to stand up and stop focusing on a civil war that has long been over. They need to fight a war that is right in front of there faces. The Northern states are still able to maintain decent schools. Those kids will go to college and move on. I hope the people stop letting these politicians rule there destiny. Good luck all!!
I agree; it is pretty scary. Up and down the east coast FL, VA, NY, CT we have these “stop and flunk the kids” scores going out the week before school starts.
I don’t think that people where I live realize that this is a possibility and that they need to be fighting to make sure that it doesn’t happen in their backyards.
I think that it is pretty sad that they don’t realize this. What is happening to the people in this country? They don’t think they deserve better? Our country was built on the fact that we can make anything happen. Have we all lost that? Is everyone just going to roll over and be told what will happen to them?
I am not like that!!! I fought for my Dyslexic son to be sent to a private school paid for by the state we live in because he deserve better. Parents have to stand up for their kids!!! You must fight!!! Our kids deserve this!!! We owe this to our kids. I owe it to my son to make sure I give him the best possible opportunity. I am that kind of Mom. I will continue to be that way.
I thought this was interesting:
Atlanta built an actual publicly-funded, publicly-run LOCAL high school! Now that’s breaking with the reform “status quo”!
They’re calling it a “signal of faith” in public schools. While it’s a shame that investing in a public school is so unusual in the current reform climate that it merits a front-page piece in the NYTimes, I thought it was a hopeful sign, considering the melt-down of standardized-testing centered “reform” in Atlanta.
Exactly, Diane, Your myopia is revealed.
If it doesn’t work what is one to do? Change it!! Public education has not been working for a long, long time and now the forces of change have become strong enough where only good things can happen.
More on my blog http://bit.ly/17xWYVE
Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Principal
” where only good things can happen.”
Reckless and irresponsible. What a crazy thing to say. Every reform gimmick and fad can only be successful, because only good things come from “change”!
“Reform ideas can’t fail, they can only be failed by pesky dissenters like Ravitch. If she’d just stop asking questions and clap louder, good things will happen!”
Thank God there’s one high profile dissenter in US education.
What do reformers do when one of the many, many, many successful public school systems contradicts this belief system they’ve adopted? It must be terrifying. No wonder we never hear any advocacy for public schools from the reform crowd. Successful schools run right into the dogma.
After reading what you’ve said here, “Dick,” why would anyone waste time going to your blog?
Michael you are correct; I looked at the blog at the headlines and it appears everything he builds is an attack on Diane. I didn’t see one original thought there….
“If it doesn’t work, what is one to do? Change it!!!”
That’s exactly what we’re trying to here, sir. “Choice” hasn’t worked! Charter schools and vouchers don’t work! In Utah, 47 percent of charter schools score WORSE than public schools. Milwaukee has had vouchers for 20 years and schools are not progressing. New York City’s charter schools almost completely failed the new tests.
YOUR ideas are what are failing. NOT public schools.
Remember, when his reputation and possibly pay ride on believing blindly in reform, you can not convince him otherwise, even with the truth. Don’t aggravate yourself by entering Dick’s alternate reality, keep working to make our education system better and more equitable. This reform nonsense that reduces people to numbers will eventually be swept away with many other onerous social policies. This current situation is not sustainable. Be strong, don’t waste time reasoning with the likes of “Dick,” focus on those that actually want to have a dialogue.
I know. I shouldn’t bite, but sometimes I just can’t stand it. Dick is so mired in his own world.
To my good buddy from Louisiana.
What’s this “we” business, Louisiana? Diane just wrote about the LA teacher, obviously a very good or great teacher, Rafe Esquith.
I’m not talking about “we” or “they”, I’m talking about what works for me as I’m sure Rafe will tell you about what works for him. The magic bullet or magic dust does not exist.
Dick Velner – Parent, Teacher and Curriculum Principal
I’m not from Louisiana, I’m from Utah. My name is a reference to a terribly written social studies standardized test question.
And the “we” is those of us who are trying to improve education for all children–which is the whole point of this blog. I hope you are among those people.
The parents of the charter school students need to be demanding a return to a strong public school education.
The proper spelling is Dr. Lottie Beebe Thank you for your blog. Joseph Pearson Husband of Dr. Beebe
The proper spelling is Dr. Lottie Beebe. Thank You.