Missouri Education Watchdog is a wonderful blog that I discovered only recently.
In this post, these questions are raised: why doesn’t the U.S. Department of Education know about the tenth amendment to the Constitution? Why, under Arne Duncan, is the DOE unaware of federalism? Why is the DOE constantly overstepping its bounds, trying to impose its ideas not only on states but on districts? Don’t the leaders and lawyers know that they are breaking the law? The law is clear: no employee of the U.S. government is supposed to influence, control or direct the curriculum or instruction in the nation’s public schools. Democrats and Republicans agreed on that provision; neither wanted the other to interfere in what is a state and local responsibility.
The most recent transgression is an initiative called “The Future Ready,” in which the DOE is bypassing states and going right to the districts to hawk technology.
“The main goal of this initiative is to get districts, charters and private schools to commit to maximizing their use of digital learning and broadband access to the internet. They want schools to fund the resources necessary to “leverage their maximum impact on student learning… to develop the human capacity, digital materials, and device access to use the new bandwidth wisely and effectively.” In other words, buy more devices so you can meet our Race To The Top goal of 1:1 student:device ratio so you can purchase more digital learning services and supplies. They have a lot of high powered (well funded) friends of Washington who produce educational supplies and services who need to be repaid for helping get the right people in office so the bureaucrats could get an appointment.
“They want districts to “transition to effective digital learning,” to “achieve tangible outcomes for the students they serve.” So here we all still are on the outcomes based education bandwagon.
“It’s a nice little system. Millions of students with no other education option, will be pushed into using a private company’s product which will in turn continuously collect data on their use to improve said product. And who benefits from this? The private company. How many of our Superintendents will gladly be team players and sign this little pledge without any careful consideration of the costs of such an action? If history is any example, it unfortunately will be many.
“Among other things, the pledge commits districts to helping support home internet access. Since when is this the job of a school district? If it is, then shouldn’t they also support efforts to get every child a nice desk and chair at which to study? Shouldn’t they also be in the business of making sure every child has a nice bed since sleep is critical to learning readiness? Where does the school district’s responsibility end when it comes to a child’s education? And since when is it the job of the education department of the federal government to make sure that internet is available in the home? Sure the internet is useful, but is this how we want our education dollars spent – paying for school officials to work on these kinds of ancillary projects? Aren’t we in fact turning our district personnel into free lobbyists for all the private companies who will benefit financially from the district’s use of technology?”
I reckon it’s because the 1‰ (one per mills) among the Rs and Ds have more shared interests with each other than they do with the whole rest of the country put together.
Today, in the LA Times, in the article about tech rejection by the Construction Bond Oversight Committee of LAUSD, Howard Blume gets to the operant info in his final paragraph where he states that “there is no inventory of the devices the district already owns.” This statement comes due to the request of the Deasy-employees for yet another $42 million to spend on soon to be obsolete tech….used for testing of course.
Deasy still tries to find ways to enrich his puppet masters, in his waning days as superintendent, by throwing more good money after bad with his infamous failed decisions on iPads and MiSiS….now in the neighborhood of $500 million wasted this year.
How easy it is for these ill-trained inept administrators to spend the taxpayers money.
As a side note…Deasy’s contract for the next year will be up for discussion at the BoE meeting in closed session next week. The public outcry is to FIRE HIM for all the mismanagement during his term as Superintendent at LAUSD.
The public does not want any more Broad Academy CEOs, since many feel that Deasy has milked LAUSD to the point that it might go bankrupt. His $1,3 billion fiasco is one for the history books.
There is a growing public voice being raised to appoint educator/legislator Jackie Goldberg in the role of interim Superintendent while a national search is made.
Jackie Goldberg, whose excellent academic creds were earned at UC Berkeley and grad school at U. of Chicago, taught public school in the inner city for many years. She was elected to the LAUSD BoE and served as President of the Board. Thereafter, she was elected to serve on the LA City Council. Her lifetime of education experience, and legislative administrative management of her vast LA City Council district, are proven successes for the role of LAUSD Superintendent.
I urge all teachers and parents to make your voices heard RIGHT NOW by contacting all 7 members of the BoE. Time is of the essence!
If the public school superintendents sign that crazy contract or vow or whatever it is, they could end up like the Detroit EAA did:
From: Mary Esselman
To: [Several Agilix support staff]
Subject: Unit not letting students progress
Guys … We have Eli Broad, the governor, Head of Education in the House and Senate, hedge funders, etc. coming Friday and the students need at least one day in the unit prior to their visit. If we don’t fix this they will not be on the platform and it will be a debacle. This is important because … we have to generate funding. Please help us figure out why they are not accessing the new unit.
http://www.metrotimes.com/detroit/the-eaa-exposed-an-investigative-report/Content?oid=2249513&storyPage=4
The ultimate problem: When we should be putting educators into the chairs of the DOE, we insist on putting politicians and businessmen–the two least qualified sectors when it comes to education. It is the same with our Science, technology, and medicine committees. all are businessmen and politicians. not one knows a carpal from a tarsal, or their Gluteus Maximus from a triceps muscle and couldn’t tell you where to find “gray matter” and yet they are put on boards that govern everything from what medicines Medicare covers to what can legally be considered rape. Quite frankly, we place too many idiots into office who can’t tell a slide rule from a sliding scale. To them, numbers are all that matter, and the less money they spend, the more they think they have done a wonderful job. real world data doesn’t matter to them. they work on the auspice that theory should translate well into reality, but yet cannot fathom why communism-as a perfect theoretical government-did not work in reality. Reality being that theory is just that: theory.
Until we get educators into the DOE, we will always have a logjam of stupidity in office. And until they realize that what looks good on paper does not necessarily translate into “good” in the real world, they will continually fail in their “reforms”. Instead of privatizing, they should feel it necessary to properly fund each public school despite size, racial demographics or location. These do not have a bearing on the priority of education for all. What it does do is limit the options of those who are affected by the faulty control of purse strings by non-educators who think that numbers mean anything more than what they do–which is nothing.
Agree completely, Jay. Please see my comments above. Educators must be the group that oversees education…no more Broadies!
I completely agree with you about what should be happening, but as for the reason why it is not, I have to disagree. The reason the high-level roles in government are filled by business persons is that the government is a business. They are managing a fee-for-service enterprise. It’s taxpayer money but it is still money. They need people in there who can hold their own, have connections, make decisions, and understand how money flows; that is what the job essentially is. (Appointed positions can be problematic in both the public and private sectors, but it seems “more wrong” in cases of gov’t.)
It’s the biggest partisan debate, how we spend money. If we spend a lot, we are socialist, but by spending too little, we increase marketplace competition for the other privatized, for-profit services. Where money goes is locked into a politicized state-of-being. Having a two- party government is a real problem. They differ on social issues but hardly at all on the ones pertaining to corporate taxation and incentives, environment, or education…the things that matter and impact our quality of life. The financial investment in soft skills for children is almost non-existent. We build roads, we install AV equipment, pass out tablets, things that scream “improvement” in a few days or months.
There is nothing idealistic about government. And I think that it is not them who has to realize the difference between great business credentials and altruism, it is us, the citizens. Who are we voting for in local elections…do we show up at local debates…do we take the time to inform ourselves…are we packing the house…are we marching in the streets? It is our passivity and indifference that allows for the cult of CEO as superhero as well as our culture of overwork and escapism. Until our values change and we reject our expected passive role, nothing will change, it will be politics as usual and government as usual.
Another factor is that the education workforce is comprised mostly of women. The decisions being made, ones that denigrate the profession and oppress the children it serves, reflect sexism against women. When the three branches of government, state and local offices reflect the percentage of men to women in the population, I firmly believe that the discourse will be different. When women are able to make more decisions than impact their own lives and what is happening in their workplace or community, things will change.
USDE has become the major advocate for market-based education, free of regulatory oversight. I am not alone in reaching this conclusion. Charter school scams abound, the tests from PARCC and SBAC open new markets for tech services.
The USDE tech component for school use began under Margaret Spellings and has since been elaborated. For more than a decade, USDE has funded initiatives with parallel funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation among many others. Be sure to look at the graphic and narrative here https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/2004/plan_pg10.html
A major lobbyist for the tech industry, Ken Kay famous for the “21st Century Skills” meme, tried twice to get legislation passed for that misleading and uninformed promotional venture, with spin-off -money for his tech clients. He failed.
For a time, the Council of Chief State School Officers distracted Ken Kay by setting him up as a consultant on the tech interface with the CCSS. The proponents of the CCSS were not happy because they were working on the “college and career” agenda and slogan. Then the CCSSO buried some of his not-so-21st-century concepts–problem-solving, creativity, global awareness/competency—in the EdSteps website .Ken Kay has left DC but he is still marketing services and products connected with “21st Century-Skills.”
Key Kay’s failed request for legislation can be seen at https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/111/s1029/text
Can we sue the DOE for violating the 10th admendment ?
A state certainly can. Can “we”? Probably not, but maybe. See Bond v. United States, and let me know if you can make any sense of it. http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/09-1227.ZO.html
Bond was harmed by the federal over reach the court held that an individual that is harmed by the federal over reach has standing to bring an action . The case was remanded. Perhaps Wendy Lecker can jump in with her interpretation.
Better they should spend their money on feeding every child two good meals per day, and giving them food for the weekend if they need it.n
We already have a program that does that at our Show Me State district. Some students get a bag of food to take home for the weekend so that they can have something to eat.
A large Metro Atlanta school system of 100,000+ students offered parents reduced Comcast monthly Internet service, plus free downloads of computer software. Most of the systems’ textbooks are online, majority of schools eligible for Title1, high poverty & millions are spent on superintendents scandals & frauds. Several parts of the county are splitting off into cities & trying to break away from county rule…which has a county CEO in jail & court as we blog. Most likely, the entire system will convert to a Total Charter System soon.
Majority of parents have cell phones, but do not have high speed internet, even with reduced Comcast offer, they are not able to purchase the service. This doesn’t seem to concern the school system, and thousands of kids are not able to access books or do their online homework.
Achievement Gap Galore & Reformers are on to another gimmick and offer.
Never been about the kids.
“This doesn’t seem to concern the school system, and thousands of kids are not able to access books or do their online homework.”
I surveyed my students last year and around 51 out of 150 or so did not have access to the internet.
Although we have access to web based supplemental material for our text, I refuse to use it because of what you have written and the inequality that doing so would enhance.
“The US Quaintstitution”
The Constitution’s quaint
Enforceable it ain’t
The President knows
That anything goes
Supreme Court’s just white paint
BURMA SHAVE ❢❢❢