An effort to create a special statewide district for low-performing schools in Mississippi was defeated by legislators in the House by a vote of 60-55.
The issue now advances to the State Senate.
The far-right American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has made a priority of creating statewide entities and eviscerating local control.
These statewide districts are hallmarks of states bent on privatization, like Michigan, Louisiana, and Tennessee.
There is no evidence that the state does a better job with low-performing students than the local district.
Typically what the students in these schools need is smaller classes, specialized staff, the arts, bilingual teachers, and specific programs that help the students progress.
Fresh thinking is needed that empowers communities and teachers to address the needs of their students.
The status quo of state takeovers (which has been tried and failed for 20 years in New Jersey) doesn’t work.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The MI EAA authority has two sets of schools. One set is publicly-run and the other set is chartered.
But the correspondence between the Broad Foundation and the EAA in 2012 states that the plan is for the schools to be chartered. Since they had no earthly idea in 2012 how the public schools would stack up against the charter schools, it appears to me (reading their email exchanges) that the Detroit schools would be chartered, no matter if the public school improved or not under the EAA.
The documents were only released in response to a FOIA request by a member of the state legislature in MI, so the EAA commitment to “transparency” seems to be purely a marketing slogan too. Obviously, ordinary people probably won’t be filing FOIA requests to find out what the plans are for their public schools.
The authority districts have one purpose: to privatize public schools. The 5 year plan for the EAA is more charter schools. They don’t know what set of schools will perform better, but it doesn’t matter.
It might be a good primer for people in Mississippi to see how these charter districts are designed ahead of time, well prior to any “community input”.
What’s funny about the 2012 numbers are, the EAA-run schools have better enrollment numbers than the charters do. It doesn’t matter. They still want “increasingly chartered schools” according to the emails.
The emails btwn the Broad Foundation and the MI EAA are at p. 50 in the link.
Click to access LiptonPt8_2ndSet.pdf
Do you remember when Roy Roberts said he was told to “Blow-up” the district? So disgusting. He claimed that Gov. Snyder wasn’t the one who told him to do it. If not, then who????????? The people of Detroit passed a bond for the schools then the buildings were taken from DPS. It hard to believe this stuff is allowed to happen in America.
I don’t think it’s hard to believe
Take a look at history: for instance, the number of treaties the US signed with American natives and then broke; McCarthyism and his red scare; the 19th century Chinese Exclusion Act that wasn’t appealed until the middle of the 20th century, and the Japanese-American prison camps during World War II—just to name a few on a long list.
And if you still aren’t convinced, I suggest you read “The Bully Pulpit” by Doris Kearns Goodwin for more examples.
Got a question. I know I do not want the US Dept of Ed to dictate to diverse states. But, I’m not knowledgeable enough to seem a problem of a state standard working in conjunction with their varied school districts.
One reason is that the state provide a percentage of public education funding so both state and local officials should work together. ajbruno14 gmail
This organization and those like it hide behind fancy patriotic names that disguise the fact that they are allegedly creating future prison camps for children with special needs and children who live in poverty who are also difficult to teach.
By creating these special districts that single out a specific, identified population or students, this is discrimination on a colossal, planned scale no different than what happened to American Japanese during World War II.
Label them first and then lock them up behind barbed wire where they can do no harm.
I still can’t believe they give schools grades. The schools mentioned are given “Fs” I just think that is terrible. People of Mississippi, be thankful, you just saved yourself from insanity.
Hi everyone,
I’d like to share a talk I recently gave to the School Board of Palm Beach County, FL about the excessive testing going on in our public schools and who is profiting by it.