Florida Republicans are rushing through a voucher bill with no accountability for state tests. Even with state tests, it would be a terrible bill as its purpose is to destroy public education.
One leading voucher advocate bluntly told an audience in California that the game plan was to sell the bill as being a benefit to poor minority kids. Of course, that’s a scam. The main goal is to break public education, crush the unions, and fund every backwoods church school where kids can learn 17th century STEM skills.
Critics say it will divert up to $1 billion from community public schools.
Florida is rapidly racing to the bottom. Will Arne Duncan speak out to stop this unconstitutional diversion of public funds to religious schools? Will President Obama?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The article that you linked to states that black ministers are supporting vouchers, which is tax money collected from corporations. Is this because they own church schools? I think the unions need to reach out to any black leaders who are supporting vouchers and explain why this is not in the best interest of them or their parishoners.
The black population, from what I can see, probably sees this as a way to maintain the family values they say are important. I don’t think the black population in general, for example, is too keen on gay rights. They probably see this as a way to avoid supporting gay rights.
That would be my guess.
If the preachers are in it for the money it will be pretty hard to convince them vouchers aren’t in their best interest.
Surely the owner of this blog and her staff of 92 and the linked article are mistaken.
Charters and schools receiving vouchers are just like public schools.
Ok, ok, except in an increasing number of cases that involve unimportant things like student rights & parent rights & employee rights, legal penalties concerning fraud, being able to shut down schools in order to engage in political lobbying, salaries of top administrators, curriculum, being audited, taking high-stakes standardized tests…
Did I mention that charters and schools receiving vouchers are just like public schools?
😎
Is anyone reading these RttT reports that are on the DOE site?
I’m looking at Ohio’s and unless I misunderstand this (entirely possible- I have no idea if I’m reading the scores correctly) this state hasn’t made any gains in standardized test scores at all.
The beatings will continue until morale improves, I guess.
Some of you edu-experts should take a look at these reports. Check Arne’s work 🙂
Click to access ohio-year-3.pdf
This is the same type of documentation that Rhode Island and other States prepare. You need a big PR effort to make something so non-significant look important. Talk about all the major efforts underway, include a big glossary, Print the report on fancy paper. Tout all of the initiatives that are underway. Have websites that describe all of the wonderful efforts that are being undertaken. Does it all change the fact that there is virtually no change in student test scores. Of course not. What we need is a set of competing reports that talk about the wasted time teachers are forced to sit through to learn the new “systems.” Talk about how teacher morale is the lowest its been in a half century. Talk about how truly gifted teachers can’t wait to bail out of the system because they can’t take the BS any longer. Talk about kids crying when they are forced to take the tests. Talk about how districts are forced to buy Chromebooks so they can take the silly tests. Talk about school budgets that can’t afford to buy books for school libraries. The list goes on and on. Then package all of this in slick, glossy printed PR documents. That’s where we are in this educational quagmire. Thank you Arnie. You done good.
This is a good idea… do you think we can find a billionaire to underwrite this effort? 😉
“The Lawrence school district is preparing to take full control of Lawrence Virtual High School, a charter school that until recently had been run by a private company.
The move comes as district officials begin to question the effectiveness of virtual schools generally. The future of the Lawrence program will depend on whether it can improve its academic performance.
“If we can do it well, we plan to continue,” Lawrence Superintendent Rick Doll said. “It’s all about quality for me. There is a need across Kansas, as evidenced by the enrollment we have, but we’ve got to do it well.”
Is this the first time a school has gone from privatized to public? 🙂
I don’t think public schools should do this. The online charter schools in Ohio are a flat-out disaster. I don’t know why public schools would want to take them on. They’ll just end up responsible for this over-hyped, over-sold boondoggle.
http://www.districtadministration.com/news/kansas-district-prepares-full-takeover-troubled-virtual-high-school
Hmmm. That’s interesting.
Lawrence has two high schools and they are both very good.
It’s good of them to do, but will they be punished for the standardized score drop with inclusion of the cybercharter scores? If it’s a disaster, why not have the people who made the money on them come back in and clean it up?
Cybercharters have the worst test scores in the state in Ohio, and they’re the fastest growing “sector” of charters. I’d hate to make them public and then have public schools punished when the composite score for the district goes down.
We’ve had them for a decade and they get worse every year. It’s nuts. We have a lot of two-job working class families. Everyone is working. No one is monitoring these kids. They’re advertised heavily. The ads are everywhere and both Jeb Bush and the Governor promote them. I think it’s crazily irresponsible and really unseemly or a former governor and a sitting governor to be selling these for-profit schools. How is that any different than selling a product to kids? Would they endorse a specific product and sell it to kids? That’s insane. It’s not a state actor’s role.
Online charter schools are a Ponzi scheme
That’s an insult to Ponzi schemes which are usually hard to detect until they are quite a bit older.
For profit online charter schools… yes, most if not all are designed to extract public funds for the benefit of shareholders… but there are some public charters that offer online courses that are working… Exeter NH’s Great Bay echarter http://www.gbecs.org/index.html provides courses to isolated schools and North Country Charter Academy http://www.northcountrycharteracademy.com makes extensive use of online learning to students who are unsuccessful in traditional public schools. Both of these are subject to the State guidelines in NH which SO FAR are far superior to those I read about in your blog.
What happened?
How did we get to this point?
Joanna, the Dems in DC sold out to hedge fund guys
They sure did, indeed. Cui bono?
The answer is no. President Obama has already sold out to the fake reformers, the robber barons and wolves of Sesame Street.
Only from the grassroots on up will there be any growing resistance. We are facing the biggest challenge to democracy as we know it since the end of the Civil Rights Movement. From the end of the Civil War to the victories of the Civil Rights movement, Americans continued to improve the democratic experience. What’s happening now is reversing the process that will lead to losses of freedom.
Is it time yet to compare this model to Germany pre WWII? Why were the leaders of the Reich so obedient to Hitler, who obviously had some mental issues and thought he was right about everything.
Can we do some research on “false prophets”? Can we find out why sheep follow their leader over a cliff. Can we find out why the frog stays in the water and boils to death.
Can we discover how to “de-program” the masses of people in this country who have become indoctrinated and brainwashed? How do we overcome “Stockholm Syndrome”? The Common Core & supporters are like a Bill Gates “cult”. This is obvious because of their denial of the psychological damage it is causing children, as well as their refusal to listen to teachers and educators, or mental health experts, or child development experts. Those of us who can see what is happening to children, to teachers, and to the public schools, are standing with our mouths open watching this happen and feeling helpless.
We need some Stanford and Berkeley brains here….but…Oh wait….California is in the process of implementing Common Core too.
The real brains are those of us who can recognize this problem and empathize with the children and the teachers. Therefore, it is up to us. How do we start this Civil War II?
Will Arne Duncan speak out to stop this unconstitutional diversion of public funds to religious schools? Will President Obama?…
NO!
President Obama will…by talking as though what is happening is the wonderful type of schooling he’d want for his daughters even if it’s far removed from the truth.
At this point in FL, how can they make public schools administer tests (and grade the schools) when they give out so many vouchers? I think there is a valid lawsuit for the public schools to refuse to test.
Ask: Who are those who have bought into the blatant lies because of ????? maybe $$$$$. I ask again, “Cui bono?”
The 7 Holy Virtues are:
Humility, Charity, Kindness, Patience, Chasity, Temperance, and Diligence
The 7 Deadly Sins are:
Pride, Avarice, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth
…and there was something about a Camel going through the Eye of a Needle?
Thanks, Jordan, we know where we stand. And we know where the greedy and avaricious stand.
“Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” Matt 19:21, KJV
Something tells me that Yeshua would not be pleased with the money changers in the temple of education.
Many of the people who are running the corporation that administers these vouchers in FL, Step Up for Students, are ex-public school educators. Diane, maybe you could have a conversation with them and find out why they have chosen to go ‘over to the dark side’ as it were.
No need for a conversation. The answer is: MONEY! Gobs and gobs of money. Plus, the extra added bonus: they don’t have to actually work with kids. A few ex-teachers that I know were terrible working with students, so now they’re administrators. Twas ever thus. Not that all administrators are like that, but many are.
Step Up for Students received $267,447,702 in “contributions, gifts and grants” for the fiscal year ending in June, 2012. (Charity Navigator) Program and operating expenses were $152,642,566, leaving a $115,141,222 in excess revenues.
Step Up also has net assets of $216,579,435.
Between net asset and excess revenues, Step Up is sitting on roughly $330 million in diverted tax revenues that rightly belongs to the commons
With all these excess monies, no wonder preachers are chomping at the bit to grab a slice of money pie.
Below is Step Up’s description on Charity Navigator :
“Since 2000, Step Up For Students (formerly The Florida School Choice Fund) has been working to empower low-income parents with educational options for their children. The mission of Step Up For Students is to improve K-12 education in Florida through parental choice programs that advantage children from low-income and working class families. Step Up For Students seeks to spur improvements in the K-12 education system by equipping all of Florida’s parents with the tools to seek the best education for their children through educational option programs – such as the Step Up For Students Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship Program and the McKay Scholarship for Students with Disabilities.
Joanna Best also makes a good point about the opposition to gay rights among leadership in the black religious community. I would not want my tax dollars going to schools which preach/teach that it’s okay to discriminate and vilify others who have done no wrong. I also wouldn’t want my tax dollars going into any preacher’s pocket of any religious affiliation. An intolerant culture and or/community which vilifies gay people creates a license to bully vulnerable teens. One of the best thing our majority minority school district did is to allow a GSA Club at the high school. Diversity is more than skin deep.
I respect you, Diane, and your fight for education, but I don’t like it when you make unfair attacks.
“The main goal is to break public education, crush the unions…”
No, it’s not. Parents are sick to death of the bureaucracy, the crazy zero-tolerance rules, the political correctness, Common Core, and a million other things. They are demanding change, and the politicians are responding.
“…and fund every backwoods church school where kids can learn 17th century STEM skills.”
Completely unfair and, to borrow a term lefties like to use, classist. Some of the main parents fighting for this are educated suburbanites.
I personally think that the voucher idea is a bad one, but I prefer to argue against it in an honest way.
Jack,
You can disagree, if you so choose, but I worked in three different conservative think tanks. The goal of vouchers (read Milton Friedman) is to destroy public education by draining it of resources and to crush the teachers unions. If you choose to believe otherwise, go right ahead. I heard it from the mouths of many horses, and they were running the campaign for vouchers in many states.
Diane — I have no doubt that is the goal of some of the think tank guys. But what is going on now is being pushed by the grassroots as much as anything, and the concerned parents who are pushing for this stuff don’t have hidden agendas. They’re just looking out for their kids. Without that grassroots push, none of these voucher programs would be getting political traction. And the “backwoods church school” crack is still out of line.
Jack, Diane is spot on with her comments. The Rheeformers, et al., would love nothing more than to morph the commons of the public school into a profit center that will produce incurious, obedient Gammas. Destroying the teacher’s union is one objective toward attaining their long-term goal. Hence, the funding of TFA, charter schools, parochial schools, co-locations for the Duchy of Moskowitz, etc. Hence, high-stakes testing and junk science to drive remaining educators to teach to the test.
I am sickened by the heist of at least $330 million to private enterprises, when it should have been allocated to enrich learning for Florida’s public school students. I am sickened that many of our so-called leaders are doing their darndest to deprofessionalize teaching.
Driving out the best and most experienced teachers are joypills for Rhee, Gates, Duncan and the rest of the plutocrats.
But again, TFA, charter schools, etc., etc. are not the reasons suburban parents want vouchers. In fact, and ironically enough, many of the “reforms” put in place by the Gates and Rhees of the world are the very things many parents are trying to get their kids away from. I’m not for vouchers, but if I had them, I would put my kids in private school so fast it would make your head spin, and I know for a fact (because I talk to them) that this type of sentiment is what is fueling so many people to push for voucher programs.
This program has been in place since 2001. There is absolutely no evidence that it has hurt public education one whit, let alone destroyed anything. To the contrary, the ONLY evidence shows that this program actually leads to the improvement of public schools. http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/publications/papers/2010/ipr-wp-10-03.html Nor is there any evidence that it is a scam — to the contrary, the most rigorous evaluations have shown that it improves kids’ learning. http://www.redefinedonline.org/2013/08/annual-study-on-florida-tax-credit-scholarship-program-released/
So by all the evidence, this program is a win-win — it helps the kids who participate, and it helps the public school kids too.
WT, you are wrong. This is new legislation. The voucher legislation of 2001 was found unconstitutional by the Florida courts. The only voucher program in place is the McKay Scholarship program for special education, and an investigative reporter wrote articles showing that the McKay voucher program was riddled with fraud, corruption, and abuse. He won a major journalism prize for his exposé. http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2011-06-23/news/mckay-scholarship-program-sparks-a-cottage-industry-of-fraud-and-chaos/
First, McKay is not the only voucher program in place. Second, the other program in place is the Tax Credit Scholarship, which WAS established in 2001. http://www.floridaschoolchoice.org/information/ctc/ The current bill expands that credit.
This program has been in place since 2001. There is absolutely no evidence that it has hurt public education one whit, let alone destroyed anything. To the contrary, the ONLY evidence shows that this program actually leads to the improvement of public schools. http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/publications/papers/2010/ipr-wp-10-03.html Nor is there any evidence that it is a scam — to the contrary, the most rigorous evaluations have shown that it improves kids’ learning. See redefinedonline.org/2013/08/annual-study-on-florida-tax-credit-scholarship-program-released/
So by all the evidence, this program is a win-win — it helps the kids who participate, and it helps the public school kids too.
Also, Dr. Ravitch, why do you care that this program is not subject to accountability metrics? Isn’t that a good thing in your eyes?