This was written before I spoke in Omaha, but the reporter was well prepared and got the gist. Actually when I spoke to him, I had not yet written my speech.
What I said in Omaha:
In a few words: You are too independent, too smart, too stubborn to follow everyone else over the edge of a cliff. You have saved tens of millions (maybe hundreds of millions) of dollars by losing Race to the Top. You are a model for the nation. And without having adopted any of the so-called “reforms,” Nebraska is one of the highest-performing states in the nation on NAEP. In fact, Nebraska outperformed every state that won RTTT except Massachusetts.
Nebraska surprised me. It dragged its feet implementing NCLB. It put in a proposal for Race to the Top, but fortunately lost. It has no charter schools, no Common Core. It didn’t get a waiver because the state doesn’t want to evaluate teachers by test scores. The state commissioner Matt Blomstedt has decided not to ask anymore but to wait and see if NCLB is overhauled.
The state is mainly rural so there is not much enthusiasm for charters except in Omaha, where there is a poor black community. Some black leaders think that charter schools will be a panacea. Some white legislators agree. But so far no action on that front.
Despite the fact that Nebraska avoided almost every part of the reform menu, its students did very well on the 2015 NAEP. The state was in the top tier, ranked 9th or 11th in the nation. It outperformed every Race to the Top winner except Massachusetts, which has been number1 for years.
Nebraska is a conservative state, in the best sense of the word. It doesn’t believe in following the crowd. It doesn’t want to blow up its public schools and hope for the best. It wisely decided to wait and see. No creative disruption. No experiments on children. Just common sense.
Also, being a state where people know one another in small cities, towns, and rural communities, Nebraska loves its public schools. Even Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, sent his own children to Omaha public schools.
But there is a new governor, and he is convinced that Nebraska needs charters, vouchers, virtual schools, the whole bag of privatization schemes.
Hopefully the good citizens of Nebraska will persuade him that conservatives don’t destroy; conservatives conserve. Hopefully, they will inform the governor that Nebraska’s public schools are among the best in the nation.
If it ain’t broke, don’t break it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But that is exactly what the corporate funded public education demolition derby wants to do. Break and totally annihilate what isn’t broken and then profit from the cash flow released from behind the broken damn of public funds.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
Prescient advice that I hope the gov and others follow.
I am wondering if Nebraska has smallish class sizes. I still advocate small classes like Exeter, Deerfield, Sidwell, of 12 students can make a bigger difference for most students more than Bill Gates and computers.
This link will take you to a chart that shows average class size for every state.
https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/sass/tables/sass0708_2009324_t1s_08.asp
Nebraska
from the 1st column in each of these two categories. There are six columns.
Elementary Schools 19.6
Secondary Schools 13.6
“If it ain’t broke, don’t break it!”
Love that, Diane. Must be a little part of that Texas upbringing ringing through! (although I’d hope all could understand that little pearl of wisdom).
translation; “If it ain’t reformed, don’t reform it”
Don’t you mean,
“If it ain’t DEformmed, don’t REform it.”
?
Don’t you mean,
“If it ain’t DEformed, don’t REform it.”
?
They have vikings as their fore-fathers there, yes? We should be more like vikings. 🙂
Did any of the many, many paid ed reform lobbying groups support the Mississippi effort to fund public schools?
“Richton School District Superintendent Noal Cochran said teacher and staff morale took a tumble in his largely poor and rural South Mississippi district after voters rejected Initiative 42.
“The biggest blow to the campus is the [low] morale of teachers,” said Cochran. “It’s hard not to feel like this vote is about them. It’s as if it’s a personal indictment — that you aren’t doing your job to a level where we think you are worth full funding. It’s very hard for them.”
Gosh, with all that money and all those well-connected political professionals in the ed reform “movement” one would think they could have put some of the privatization energy towards passing Initiative 42 and getting some basic funding for the public schools that exist.
Is it any wonder people don’t believe they’re about “improving public schools” when they only pour money into political campaigns to bust unions or open more charters?
“I felt like we really needed that money to give our students what they need and deserve — the kinds of things that are taken for granted other places,” Eubanks said, adding he also needs upgraded buses, more classroom space, teacher aides and other staff.”
Not innovative enough, or what? Buses are probably too “traditionalist”, maybe.
http://hechingerreport.org/heartbroken-mississippi-educators-wonder-whats-next-after-school-funding-failure-at-polls/
I am curious to see what happens when the private charters have difficulty staffing because of low salaries and the public refuses to pay taxes so they can? The educational-technical complex is not as compelling as national defense.
Leaving CA for Nebraska if they can hold out. Unfortunately, they ARE wrapped into the Bill GATE$ NET of Big Data. Can they Kick it to the curb?