It is true that they have a lot of money–Gates, Broad, Walton, Dell, Wasserman, Arnold, Helmsley, and about two dozen other foundations. Maybe more. And they have the U.S. Department of Education. But none of their big ideas is working. Study after study shows that charters on average do not produce higher test scores than public schools; many are far worse than even the lowest-performing public schools. New Orleans is just so much hype and spin. The Tennessee “Achievement School District” is far from reaching its ambitious goals; it may never meet them. More hype and spin. Vouchers put kids into religious schools without certified teachers, where they will learn the religious version of history and science. Does anyone think that moving more students into religious schools to study creationism is a winning strategy for the 21st century? The latest study from CREDO shows that online charters are a disaster and kids actually make no progress at all in math in a year of “instruction.”
Then there is the big bet on teacher evaluation by test scores. It has fallen flat everywhere. No one can say with assurance that the test scores weed out bad teachers and identify the best. Mostly, the test scores identify who is in the class. Gates showered hundreds of millions of dollars on a handful of districts to prove his pet theory, but thus far there is no proof. One of the Gates’ favored districts, where he pledged $100 million to try out his pet ideas, Hillsborough County in Florida (Tampa), abandoned the project after realizing that it was draining the district’s reserves with nothing to show for it (Gates eventually put up $80 million, but the evaluation plan cost about $250 million). The American Statistical Association warned against the use of value-added scores to rate individual teachers, as did the American Educational Research Association. VAM is dead man walking.
The Common Core standards were supposed to be the mechanism to standardize all of American education: The standards were supposed to align curriculum, instruction, assessment, teacher education, professional development, technology, and textbooks. Bill Gates boldly proclaimed that common standards were like a common electrical system, but children are not toasters, and teachers are not robots. States are backing out of the testing, and a few have rebranded the Common Core because the “brand” is toxic. However the Common Core shakes out, it will not be the basis for national standards and national tests. It will not create a single marketplace for vendors of products, as its sponsors hoped. Some will use it, some won’t. No one knows what part of this Grand Experiment will survive. The big gamble on stitching U.S. education into a seamless garment that was standardized from sea to sea has already failed. Some states will continue to use the Common Core standards, others will not. Most states have dropped out of the two federally-funded tests, PARCC and Smarter Balanced.
And oh my goodness! Where are all those reformer stars of yesteryear? The debut year of 2010, when they launched with “Waiting for Superman” to a breathless media, seems long, long ago.
Michelle Rhee has stepped away from the national stage, into apparent obscurity, even though her organization continues to fund rightwing anti-public school state-level candidates (and her book bombed).
Wendy Kopp has gone into seclusion, running TFA international, while her heirs continue to manage TFA here. As more and more ex-TFA go public with their critiques, the bloom is off the rose. TFA recruitment has fallen by 25-30%, because all that teacher-bashing unleashed by the reformers hurt TFA as well as every legitimate teacher preparatory institution. Is there anyone who still believes that children need inexperienced teachers who will be gone in a little while?
Joel Klein went to work for Rupert Murdoch, selling technology for schools; his division, called Amplify, accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, because its tablets and chargers melt or break (his book bombed, too). After Amplify had lost over $500 million, Murdoch sold it to the highest bidder (Joel Klein and friends). The bid may have been $1.
Geoffrey Canada, the superman of the privatization movement, retired from the Harlem Children’s Zone and now apparently spends his time lecturing about the glories of privately managed charters, although few have or ever will have the resources of HCZ or two billionaires on the board to make sure that every class is no larger than 15 with two teachers, that every student gets personal tutoring, that every student gets free medical care, and that prizes for performance include trips to Disneyland and even the Galapagos. Other charters–and public schools–can only dream about that kind of financial largesse.
Tony Bennett, the state superintendent in Indiana, once acclaimed by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute as the reformiest of all the reformers, was beaten in 2012 by Glenda Ritz; Bennett then became state chief in Florida, where he quickly resigned when news broke about a grade-changing scandal to benefit a campaign contributor and charter school founder during his tenure in Indiana.
Kevin Huffman resigned from the state superintendent’s job in Tennessee.
John White, the state superintendent in Louisiana, soldiers on, but his future is in doubt since Louisianans elected a Democratic governor who declared that he wants to get rid of White.
Deborah Gist, hailed as a national leader for mass firings at the high school in Central Falls in 2010, was not reappointed as state superintendent in Rhode Island and is now superintendent of schools in Tulsa.
John Covington abruptly resigned from the floundering Educational Achievement Authority in Michigan, which has been mired in scandal and produced no results for the students.
Cami Anderson resigned in Newark.
Mike Miles resigned in Dallas.
The Broad Superintendents Academy used to post on its website the names, photos, and bios of their “graduates, to show their significant roles, but that page has not appeared since 2011, probably because so many of the “stars” have been fired or resigned.
Arne Duncan is leaving the U.S. Department of Education. The new “Every Student Succeeds Act” strips future Secretaries of Education of any authority to tell districts or states what to do. His major legacy has been a bipartisan loss of confidence in the federal Department of Education to address the needs of American education. His successor, John King, inherits the bully pulpit and a much diminished role under the new Every Student Succceds Act.
Janet Barresi, the state chief in Oklahoma who was both a dentist and charter school founder, was beaten by Joy Hofheimer, a Republican who strongly supports public education.
Eva Moskowitz is going strong, having crushed Mayor Bill de Blasio and having a firm grip on Governor Cuomo. Her reputation took a hit when John Merrow showed on national television that she believes in suspending five- and six-year-olds.
Jeb Bush, the puppet master of corporate reform, is faltering in single digits in his quest for the Republican nomination for president.
Hanna Skandera hangs on as State Superintendent in New Mexico, despite her lack of teaching credentials (which state law requires), but a state judge struck down her punitive use of VAM to fire teachers.
Not an impressive track record. The stars and celebrities of corporate reform have faded, and no one with star power has come to the fore to take their places. How many are on the bench? Many states remain in the grip of privatizers bent on destroying public education, starving it of funding while demanding higher performance. Think Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana. Did I forget some others? Yet in all of these states, there is a growing resistance to the privatizers.
I don’t mean to imply that the corporate reform movement is on its last legs. It isn’t. As long as there are hedge fund managers and other billionaires ready and willing to fund efforts to privatize public education and to de-professionalize teaching, there will be people ready to do their bidding. The hedge fund managers and billionaires aren’t going away. But they may get tired of losing. They may find that it is no longer fun. They say they care about results. They say they are data-driven. If they are, there will come a time when they stop funding failure. How embarrassing it would be for them if students from the Newark Student Union or Journey for Justice or other grassroots groups picketed their homes or offices and discredited their claims that they are civil rights leaders.
In the meanwhile, across the nation, teachers keep doing their jobs every day, doing the work that the reformers do not appreciate and could not do themselves. This will be a long struggle, but in the end the reformers and their movement will fade away. The annual PDK-Gallup poll shows that the American public has little confidence in public schools (thanks, reformers, for 30 years of defamation of public education!). But the same poll shows that parents hold their own public school and their own teachers in high esteem. Reformers think that parents don’t know how bad their schools really are, but parents know their local public schools better than the reformers do; they know their principal and the teachers. They don’t want to close them or turn them over to a charter chain.
It is best to be on the side of children and their families, not on the side that attempts to use children as political pawns and to set children against their teachers. “Corporate reform” is a mean-spirited venture that has spread disruption in the schools and disruption in the lives of children and their teachers. Some of its backers are there because of their worship of the free market; some are enjoying the novelty of being on the board of a school, “their” school; some are in it for profit, making money from charter leases or technology; some are naive innocents, not aware that they are in league with the anti-union, anti-worker Walton Family of billionaires, ALEC, and the rogues’ gallery of rightwing governors.
The corporate reformers think that disruption is good. But disruption is not good for children or schools. The corporate reformers think that choice will improve education. It doesn’t, and it hasn’t. It turns parents into consumers, not citizens. It undermines any sense of responsibility for the common good. And it will not prevail.
Having watched the Big Short, we really missed a chance to bet against the privatizes;
Delaware is a very interesting little state in public education. Our former Secretary of Education, Mark Murphy, “resigned” at the end of September. Our new Secretary, Dr. Stephen Godowsky, promised change and transparency however his first 60 days included a major punchy to districts and parents over harsh opt-out penalties in our ESEA mandated “school report card” accountability system.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell has been pimping the education reform movement for well over 10 years. As someone who worked for McKinsey in the 1990s, he learned how to manipulate and put others in position to do his bidding. While we don’t have a full-scale charter chain in Delaware, we have an over abundance of them in our largest city which has killed local funding for many of the districts in Wilmington.
Delaware has been slowly instituting everything in the just passed Every Student Succeeds Act for the past couple of years. Which I find very unusual since that would indicate a foreknowledge of what was in the bill…
Jack Markell is a lame duck, and his two terms as Governor ends in January 2017. Many have predicted he will try to secure some type of Cabinet position should Hilary become President. This would be a colossal mistake. He makes Arne Duncan look tame. Do not ever underestimate the actions of those in a small state. We are often the guinea pigs in the reformers little experiments.
Did you forget anybody? Well in Connecticut there was the tumultuous tenure of lawyer turned Ed Commissioner, Stefan Pryor, who is now the Commerce Secretary in Rhode Island. He burned a trail of reformy policies, including eval schemes, charter friendly policies, while railroading CCSS and SBAC, and anything else desired by CONNCAN, CCER and Gov Malloys funder Jonathan Sackler. We are still picking up the pieces. So much nonsense written into legislation that will take big efforts to overturn.
All I can say from my meager experiences is that not all children benefit from common core curriculum. From what I have seen companies like McGraw Hill and Pearson have benefited greatly from it. It also seems possible that a small public school can be just as successful as a small charter school.
A truly insightful and well researched post. My take? Please give the schools back to the educators. Stop the outside interference which only brings confusion to our teachers and administrators. We turned around a challenging Title 1 middle school in Miami by setting our own vision and by sharing leadership. We built a collaborative and caring culture which showed respect and appreciation for all.
Thank you for your astute summary of the privatization movement. While reformers fail in droves, the government has a lot of explaining to do to the citizenry. They need to be held accountable for their compliance with corporations and idolatry of bad ideas from billionaires. Our leaders have been negligent stewards of public education, students and public servants. Both federal and state governments have conspired against public education making deals, collecting campaign donations and favors from lobbyists to sell out the interests of the majority of America’s children. The ESSA is the latest corporate handiwork that includes nauseating partiality to charters. Our leaders have made decisions behind closed doors without transparency or democratic input. They have ignored the will and wishes of most of our citizens. We need to change laws that permit leaders to make unilateral decisions without public input. While they may suppress our collective voice, we need to answer them with our votes.
Agree completely. The private actors could never have launched this privatization campaign without the government actors either cheering them on or remaining silent.
The people who are (supposedly) accountable to us are not the billionaire funders but the elected officials. THEY CHOSE to “relinquish” public schools to the foundations and private sector CEOs.
Hooray for all this disclosure. Thank you, once again, to our fabulous Blog Hostess!!
Can this be published in the NYT, WP, LATimes?
Or can we take up a collection to run it as an ad?
I’m still stunned by friends and family who haven’t gotten what’s really going on, despite my efforts to educate. Maybe seeing this in black and white would help others?
And here’s a great title for a movie/documentary, if anyone’s looking for a project- (and thanks to Retired Teacher!)
“Public schools – The Inconvenient Truth”
How can the public get the facts when the billionaires control the media and, therefore, the message? The media including mainstream outlets try to fill our heads with garbage while the oligarchs work behind the scenes to hijack democracy.
But things are going well for all of them. Success for them is measured in $$$$$$, and each one of them made money with their ventures.
It was never about education. Murdoch even said “Education has become a multi billion dollar business”. Amplify failed, but Klein got a great salary package running it and Murdoch isn’t crying a river. And one of Klein’s cronies just got a cushy position at PBC’s school district. Politicians will always back their whacky schemes if it comes with a campaign contribution.
Until these people go bankrupt or are arrested, they will always be winners.
Well put.
Even when things go badly for the leading enforcers and enablers and beneficiaries of self-styled “education reform”: “golden parachute makes for a soft landing.”
$tudent $ucce$$ seems to engender happy thoughts in the whole bunch.
😎
What is PBC?
A big problem is that many of the big investors have really deep pockets like Gates, Broad and the Waltons. When they lose big, they summon up another pile of cash, Any normal rich person would have move on to greener investment pastures cutting their losses. Gates is like the “Energizer Bunny;” he takes a licking and keeps on ticking!
PBC is Palm Beach County
I have been trying to sort out the positive about Gulen…he is supposedly more moderate and peaceful in the muslim world—with the negative. Talk about deep pockets…25 billion? more than three times Donald Trump? and considering the surprises from the couple in California………is there any possiblitily of surprises from any of the 2500 teachers here from Turkey, or those who have arrived courtesy of investment in Gulen’s activities? I have a feeling it’s impact on privatization will not be limited to routine, all american union busting.
Joe, I don’t care whether Gulen is moderate or extreme or what his religion is. I fail to understand the rationale for turning community public schools over to a foreign-owned entity. If they want to open private schools teaching Turkish, that’s fine. But not public schools. For that matter, I don’t see the virtue of turning a community’s public schools over to a corporate charter chain. CVS High? Walmart Middle School?
Besides Bush, other politicians have been damaged by their support for these policies. Andrew Cuomo has seen his poll numbers drop like a stone with education always the worst rating for him.
Bush lost the Conservative voters then tried to back track. However his foundation is still bringing in $$$$$. But the election isn’t over yet. I do hope he loses the bigger prize, but every candidate with the exception of Bernie owes their souls to privatizers.
Cuomo made the mistake trying to make parents the enemy. But he is in deep with the charter industry.
Laura Chapman reported, a few days ago, on a paper from Columbia Teachers College researcher, Wohlstetter, written with Fordham. The EDNext article, covering the paper’s release, could have mentioned that funding was provided by the Arnold Foundation and the Walton’s. EdNext could have provided a bit of background on Wohlstetter. She serves with Margot Rogers, former Gates employee, Duncan Chief of Staff and current Parthenon education executive, on the Broad Prize for Charter Schools Review Board.
Tucked in, as the final sentence of the paper’s summary about Columbus, Ohio’s position among the top ten cities for charters, was this nugget. “Local officials and parents express minimal support (for charter schools).” The U.S. Dept. of Ed. should be notified so that they can reclaim their $71 million dollar check to expand charters in Ohio. But, that would indicate that the U.S. is a representative democracy instead of an oligarchy.
Pushing charters actually directly harmed Columbus Public schools. Ed reformers tacked a charter funding measure onto a public school levy initiative. Here’s what happened:
“But voters weren’t behind it. They defeated the 23.5 percent property-tax increase yesterday that would have shared local money with charter schools for the first time.
The measure went down 69 percent to 31 percent, with all precincts reporting, despite the months-long work of Coleman’s Education Commission, a new state law and a multimillion-dollar campaign. A companion issue that would have created a new district auditor position answerable to city, county and school district officials also lost, 61 percent to 39 percent.
It was the first loss for a Columbus City Schools levy in 23 years.”
Opening more charter schools was so important to them they sunk a public school levy, thereby directly harming every single kid in the system.
Public schools are an afterthought in ed reform- they’re treated as roadblocks on the way to privatization. If an ed reform initiative harms kids in existing public schools that doesn’t matter. They plow ahead anyway.
Chiara: Public education is being treated like the “Cinderella” of schools. They do most of the work, but are treated like second class citizens. Public schools are an inconvenient truth to the reform crowd. Despite all the waste and fraud that we taxpayers pay for, our leaders keep throwing money at charters with little accountability or oversight. Public schools have been starved, ignored, tested ad nauseam and punished. We have to let our leaders know that this is unacceptable.
Thanks for the illustration, Chiara.
In reading this post by Dr. Ravitch, I’m amazed once again, at the greatness of her insight, expression and fidelity to America’s most vulnerable, our children.
You forgot to mention their new superstar: Campbell Brown.
She only appears on shows, and in forums where she is 100% sure that no one will be present who can or will challenge her.
Her one foray into a environment where she faced criticism was Stephen Colbert’s show—the old one on Comedy Central that he had before he moved to CBS.
This was a disaster for Campbell. She probably thought such a comedy show would be a fun-filled lark, but instead, she got her ass kicked.
Since then, as a result of the Colbert fiasco, it’s been only highly-controlled forums and events, or appearances on friendly news programs for Campbell where she would be met with fawning praise and softball questions.
Campbell’s hagiographer Mark Hemingway of THE WEEKLY STANDARD falsely claimed that she was ready and willing to debate any and all critics at any time and any place, but she can’t as those critics such as Dr. Ravitch — his article and its title asserts — are “afraid” of debating Campbell. A bald-faced lie.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/whos-afraid-of-campbell-brown/article/1070546
This same article makes no mention that she’s funded by and in cahoots with billionaires out to privatize education for profit. In a moment of near perfect irony, the same day this article hit the net, secret wiretaps of the corrupt New York State Senator Dean Skelos — convicted days ago for multiple crimes — also hit the internet, and included Skelos mentioning of secret meetings the Campbell was having with her billionaire charter school promoter backers. Read about that here:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2015/12/campbell-browns-friends.html
at the risk of being repetitive, here are my posts from that article:
————–
The article goes further, stating that her opponents are too “afraid” of her to dare even attempt debate her.
WEEKLY STANDARD: “Ultimately, the problem for union spokesmen such as Weingarten and Ravitch is not that they have to contend with refuting some telegenic idiot every time the Washington Post calls them for the union point of view. Brown is eager to publicly debate education reform, but they’re afraid of engaging her. Given the opportunity, she’s going to clean their clocks. And, yes, she’s going to look good doing it.”
Talk about alternate universe.
With one notable and disastrous exception — the Stephen Colbert show (the old one before he moved to CBS — Brown has steadfastly refused to appear in any forum where she is not surrounded by corporate reformers and politicians who support and agree 100% with everything she says, and who she knows beforehand will not challenge or refute anything she says.
The Colbert show was most likely the last time she’ll venture into an environment where she will face anyone who’ll counter what she says. The Mexican stand-off moment between Colbert and her over whether she’ll reveal her funders, and if not, why not … was truly a “Perry Mason” moment. She justified this on the grounds that if she did, those funders will be targeted by… well … by the protestors outside Colbert’s studio. It was a bunch of parents holding handmade, magic markered signs. Scary!
If you’ve got nothing to hide, you hide nothing.
Ms. Brown claims that both she and her anonymous funders should be immune from suspicion, criticism, or concern, as to
— what their true motives and intentions are;
— what their past actions towards unions are;
— how they may benefit financially should Ms. Brown achieve their goals, etc.
CAMPBELL BROWN: “Oh, hey, American people… you don’t need to know the individuals and groups funding our efforts to ‘reform’ education… Just trust on this—they’re all really super, wonderful noble, well-intentioned folks and organizations who really care about the educations of poor and middle class children. Again, just trust us. They’re donating millions to our group with no ulterior motive at all, and won’t stand to benefit from any of our reform efforts. That’s all you need to know, and that’s all we’re going to tell you. You don’t really need to know any of their actual names. Really… you don’t.”
That’s patently absurd.
There were more Perry Mason moments during the Colbert show.
In the middle of the interview, Brown makes a quite damning contradiction. I call attention to her use of the pronouns “we” and “our”.
Watch the interview again at, paying attention to the following:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2014/08/campbell-brown-lame.html
Pay attention to these two snippets:
(NOTE: CAPITALS for “WE” in the first, and for “OUR” in the second clip, … are mine, JACK)
—————————————————————————————-
00:55 – 01:05
CAMPBELL BROWN: “First, let me just correct something you said. WE (Campbell & the other behind-the-scenes leaders of “Parents for Educational Justice”) are not filing this lawsuit. Seven parents who have kids in public schools in New York state are bringing this lawsuit.”
—————————————————————————————-
Now, here come Brown’s slip-up
—————————————————————————————-
03:47 – 03:52
CAMPBELL BROWN: “Can I just mention that some of OUR plaintiffs are out here tonight, too (she gestures to the audience). They’re very happy to be here.”
—————————————————————————————-
Whoa, whoa, whoa… hold on here, Campbell. Three minutes ago, you said that “we”— your group “Parents for Educational Justice”— were not filing the lawsuit, as in that it’s not “our” lawsuit; it’s the plaintiff parents’ lawsuit, and that you’re just giving them a little help. Suddenly, you’re referring to those same plaintiff parents as “our plaintiffs.”
Woopsie-daisy!
Again, notice Brown doesn’t say “the” plaintiffs, as in “the plaintiffs to whom our group is lending support.” She says, “our.” If only Colbert had been quick enough to catch her on that.
Campbell Brown was hoping for a heart-warming, Oprah-show-like cut-away to those minority children plaintiffs sitting in the audience.
No such luck.
However, her attempt to effect that cut-away backfired on Brown as she let loose with the slip-up just described.
SOUTHBRONX TEACHER was also questioning why the parents are not allowed to speak to journalists:
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2014/08/campbell-brown-exposed-by-stephen.html
He offers the follow-up questions that Colbert could have asked Brown when she said it was the parents’ lawsuit, not her group’s lawsuit:
——————————————-
“Are the parents being paid or reimbursed any expenses incurred while in the midst of this lawsuit?
“Are food and hotels and travel being reimbursed by the law firm, Campbell Brown, or PEJ? These questions are important.
“Did these parents seek out PEJ on their own, or were they sought out?
“If they were sought out how many have volunteered and/or have been employed by Students First? We do know that the lead plaintiff, Keoni Wright was employed by Michelle Rhee’s group STUDENTS FIRST at one time.
“Campbell even shares that the law firm, Kirkland Ellis, is representing the parents pro bono, but how did these parents know to seek out this particular law firm?
“But as I am watching this I am wondering to myself, why is Campbell the one being interviewed?
“Why not the parents from Rochester who ‘handled’ themselves so well with Glen Beck? (NOTE: they didn’t come off very well… you can watch this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJZDrpwi8TQ )
“In fact how did two families from Rochester know to seek out the above NYC law firm?
“(Union agitators) are trying to silence debate? How many people has Campbell blocked (#blockedbycampbellbrown )on Twitter? Blocked from multiple Facebook pages?
“But if the parents should have a role in this debate, and no one is denying that, then why then is Campbell the face and voice of the parents?
“Why not let the parents speak freely?”
————————
Again, here’s the link to South Bronx Teacher’s blog:
http://www.southbronxschool.com/2014/08/campbell-brown-exposed-by-stephen.html
—————–
This WEEKLY STANDARD article sets new standards
in blatant distortion, selectivity, and bias. Reading this,
I’m taken back to Oprah introducing Michelle Rhee
as “the great warrior woman of our time,” or to that
masterpiece ‘WATING FOR SUPERMAN.’
In this article (BELOW) there’s not a
word about who’s funding Brown, let alone
the motives and intentions of those funders.
(SEE FURTHER BELOW for audio that sheds
some damning proof about Brown and her
billionaire backers… but first … )
According to this article, Brown’s just winging it by
herself — fighting the good fight against “the
status quo” and corrupt unions… all because
she just cares so much about kids and their education.
The NEW YORK POST has got nothing on this.
However, you have to appreciate the irony that
the same day this puffery comes out, there’s a release of
a wiretap in the Senator Dean Skelos corruption case …
in which Campbell Brown’s chicanery pops up …
chicanery that is, again, at odds with that godawful
article.
If you read the puff piece above, you’d never think that
Campbell was in high-end meetings with billionaire
privatizers, and that those billionaires are funding her,
meeting about how to “use tax credits” to expand
school privatization.
However, the tapes show otherwise. (And you can
easily listen to these relevant excerpts, as they’re just
22 seconds into an audio file that is embedded
conveniently above the text of the story.)
THE DEAN SKELOS TAPES:
http://wxxinews.org/post/revealing-recorded-conversations-form-part-prosecutions-case-skelos-trial
In many recordings, the corrupt-up-to-his-eyeballs
Senator Skelos was using his various wealthy connections
to score a high-paying, cushy job for his son Adam.
Pursuant to that end, he tells his son that he’s soon
attending a meeting about education reform …
Who’s going to be there?
” … a bunch of billionaires… and Campbell Brown.”
One of those attendees might offer Adam such a job, or
act as a conduit for Adam to obtain such a job.
Therefore, Adam wants their names.
Adam eagerly implores his father, “Dad, you’ve got to take
these names down for me.”
“I got ‘em all. I got ’em,” Skelos assures his son.
“All right,” replies his satisfied son.
So again, who are the attendees at this meeting?
Campbell Brown and a bunch of billionaires
pushing charter schools.
What’s one of the topics of the meeting?
How Campbell and the billionaires can
“use tax credits” to open or expand charter schools,
and ultimately profit from such privatization.
On the audio file embedded in the article:
( 00:21 – 00:51 )
http://wxxinews.org/post/revealing-recorded-conversations-form-part-prosecutions-case-skelos-trial
( 00:21 – 00:51 )
—————————————–
DEAN SKELOS: “I’m going into the city, meeting
with some billionaires … on school tax credit stuff – ”
ADAM SKELOS: “Who are you meeting with?
DEAN SKELOS: ” Campbell Brown.”
ADAM SKELOS: “Ohhh… ”
DEAN SKELOS: “Okay.”
ADAM SKELOS: “Any financial … people?”
DEAN SKELOS: “Yeah, you know the … uhh …
the reporter, former reporter (Campbell Brown)
… a whole bunch of them (i.e. billionaire charter promoters)
and I’m having lunch with a bunch of them.
Then I’m going to – ”
ADAM SKELOS: “Dad, you’ve gotta …
you’ve gotta take these names down for me.”
DEAN SKELOS: (laughin) “I got ’em all. I got ’em.”
ADAM SKELOS: “All right.”
———————————————–
Go here for the article and to listen to
above tape excerpt:
http://wxxinews.org/post/revealing-recorded-conversations-form-part-prosecutions-case-skelos-trial
What is going on with Campbell Brown’s court case? She rolled it out loudly, and we haven’t had an update on it since. (I’ve tried to find it online). Do you know? Great writing about Campbell Brown. She sticks in my craw more than just about any other reformer.
There’s another thing that Colbert got right.
School funding. Campbell sends her kids to a private school where she pays $40,000 each for both her sons.
That’s four – to -ten times what a public schools spend per child.
One of the tenets or key strategies of corporate reformers is their goal to defund the public schools, and starve them of funding, which will then trigger large class sizes, layoffs that will turn teachers against each other, and against their union leaders… chaos and failure (as measured by the dubious metric of test scores, but that’s another story)
Corporate reformers then use that chaos and failure as the “proof” that public schools are hopeless, and thus, need to privatized and replaced with privately-managed charter schools.. run by them, and where they can get rich.
Pursuant to that end, they fight any effort that would increase school funding tooth-and-nail, as they (i.e. the Koch Brothers) did recently in defeating a ballot initiative in Mississippi, and attempted to do in their unsuccessful fight against California’s Prop 30, which thankfully passed.
Campbell’s right there with them in starving public schools of funds, and that’s where Colbert scored points.
About halfway through the interview, she gives a canned put-kids-first speech that gets applause, and Colbert dismisses it:
———————————————–
( 03:31 – 04:21 )
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2mpwlv/the-colbert-report-campbell-brown
( 03:31 – 04:21 )
STEPHEN COLBERT: (sarcastic, dismissive) “They’re going to clap because you’re playing the ‘Good for Child’ card. ummm … okay … Is this (Campbell’s group’s lawsuit) based on children being able to get access to ‘equal education’?”
CAMPBELL BROWN: “That’s exactly right. Tthere was a similar case in California and the plaintiffs in that case won.. Can I just mention some of our plaintiffs are here tonight … ?”
(wants Colbert to show the/”our” plaintiffs; Colbert won’t do it)
STEPHEN COLBERT: “But here’s the thing is … Aren’t you opening a can of worms there, because if you say that kids are entitled to ‘equal education’ — if that’s your argument — doesn’t that mean that eventually you’re going to say that every child in, say, the state of New York should have the same amount of money spent on their education — rich community, poor community — pool it all in, then split it all up among Bobby, Susie, & Billy … EVERY-where, because the argument is … everyone should get the same opportunity?”
— (huge applause)
CAMPBELL BROWN: “But you’re suggesting that it’s all about the money, and I think it’s not about the money.”
STEPHEN COLBERT: “Well, you’re suggesting that it’s about ‘equality’, and money is one of the equations in ‘equality’, or have I just schooled you?”
— (huge applause… )
——————————-
Watch the rest.
Campbell then goes from saying ‘it’s not all about the money’ to quickly assenting to Colbert, grudgingly conceding some importance to money spent in schools, even saying teachers should get paid more.
That’s a direct contradiction to corporate reformers, who believe that crap wages for teachers is pillar of corporate reform. How else can you get rich privatizing schools if there are unions demanding decent wages, benefits, low class sizes, working conditions, etc. ? The Broad-Walmart confidential plan condemns the recent 10% salary increase as a “quality-blind” raise that will make it harder to lure teachers to teach at charters, and expand charters
After that brief, disingenous, and grudging claim that money is important, she then quickly and clumsily tries to make a segue into teacher evaluation, getting an effective teacher in every classroom… and evil unions stop that.
In other words, forget the money. It’s the lousy teachers and the unions that are the problem, not any funding disparity between the schools of the rich and the poor.
She then trots out the how long it is to get a teacher fired canard… using extreme outlier cases that go through dismissal and court appeals, when the vast majority of “bad” teachers are removed outside of this, and at very minimal cost.
Colbert’s no dummy, so he asks who gets to decide which teachers are bad, and need to get fired? Parents? What if parents’ complaints are along the lines of …
I’ll let Colbert ask it.
————————————–
( 05:36 – 05:52 )
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/2mpwlv/the-colbert-report-campbell-brown
( 05:36 – 05:52 )
STEPHEN COLBERT: “What if you’re some place where the parents don’t want certain things taught to the kids? Because I would love my kids not to be taught evolution. Could I get a teacher fired if my community believed that evolution wasn’t a good thing, if that teacher didn’t have tenure?”
CAMPBELL BROWN: “Now that’s one of the arguments that the union makes… that they’re going to lose due process rights if we change these laws, and that’s simply not true. Everybody has a right to due process, and a right to a fair hearing … ”
——————————-
“Ha!” is what I have to say to that one.
At one of the Celerity charters here in Los Angeles, a pair of teachers wanted to do a presentation during Black History Month, where the students read a famous poem about Emmett Till, written by a former African-American Poet Laureate. The idiot principal and teacher cancelled it.
BACKGROUND: Emmett Till is a famous martyr in the Civil Right Movement, who was alleged to whistle at a white woman — he may or may not have done so. What’s not in dispute is that a bunch of southern crackers believed that he did. Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night, then castrated, murdered and his body mutilated. His mother later insisted on an open casket at the funeral— the picture of which was one of the main catalysts of the Civil Rights Movement.
The principal and charter CEO justified the cancellation on the grounds that… wait for it … “Emmett Till was a sexual harasser who actually got what was coming to him.”
Ooooh, boy. That’s not good. Especially in a 100% African-American school in an African-American neighborhood.
Eventually this abomination got to the press, where the teachers told their story. The Poet Laureate was quoted also.
REACTION: charter CEO Vielka McFarlande canned the teachers immediately, and nothing was ever done to the administrators involved. They never apologized or anything.
That’s the world Campbell Brown wants to bring us.
Thank you, Dr. Ravitch, for this chronicle of incompetence and failure. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving group of people, I guess.
“And oh my goodness! Where are all those reformer stars of yesteryear?”
Well, the vast majority are getting together at the 25th Temporary Fake Testers anniversary conference in DC early next February as dummies for a new wax museum.
Señor Swacker: there you go again, flailing about, disparaging wax museums and dummies.
😳
Both may not have sterling reputations, but they DO have standards, and so far they are holding the line at not including rheephormistas in their ranks.
Although to be honest, the heavyweights and enforcers and enablers of self-proclaimed “education reform” do have standards too, kind of like the electric [aka rheephorm] outlets of innovative disruption that Bill Gates wants to plug OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN into so they can bring $tudent $ucce$$ for the few at the expense of the many up to scale.
Just don’t bring up the input standards at the schools THEIR OWN CHILDREN attend like Lakeside School. Oh, and U of Chicago Lab Schools where they have more librarians…
Check out this link [thanks, Dienne!]: https://preaprez.wordpress.com/2015/12/14/chicagos-tale-of-two-cities-library-edition/
Because when it comes to the bottom line, color counts: black for them, red for us…
Go figure.
😎
A lot of the failed reformers probably continue to make money lobbying. Many of our failed politicians end up the same way.
For clarification about New Mexico’s VAM victory. Unqualified Secretary of Education Skandera’s meaningless use of 50% of VAM for a teacher’s evaluation has been halted by a judge’s injunction from a lawsuit of AFT-NM and one of its locals, the Albuquerque Teachers Federation. As we know these victories do not just happen, in the case of NM it was the hard work of these two unions. By the way, Skandera did not care for AFT-NM or ATF before the lawsuit, now she is visibly angry. This could be one of the reasons why NM’s governor is working hard to make NM a Right to Work state.
For the New Yorkers:
A New York man spent 3.2 million dollars for a dead bat for his collection of rare dead bats. Another NY man spent $28,0000 per week on Cabernet – to bathe in. A different NY man spends $80 dollars per gold staple to bind da vinci originals together.
You’d make a much better rich person
A California man spent $100 million dollars to improve the public schools in Newark, New Jersey. A considerable portion of the money was paid to educational consultants who had never taught before.
You’d make a much better rich person.
A Seattle man and his wife spent over $2 billion dollars on an education plan that used threats and punishment to motivate students to pass impossibly difficult, yet meaningless tests.
You’d make a much better rich person.
Honestly I wish Gates, Walton, Zuckerberg, Broad, etc. were spending their money to bathe in Cabernet. At least the makers of Cabernet would benefit and public education might be left alone.
I wish we could send billionaires on a mission to solve climate change and water shortages. Maybe then they could actually make money doing good. All of the disruption is harmful to students. Unlike other ventures, children are not widgets that can be sorted into bins; they are humans and future voters. We have a moral responsibility to do what is in their best interests, and not what is best for the “market.”
It’s an attitude shared by the heavyweights in self-styled “education reform”—
They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Thank y’all for your comments.
😎
Its great to read the butcher’s bill of the notable failures of the ed reformers. Its good to see in one place. Its also important for us to all know. (….and here comes the “But….”)
But….it doesn’t matter.
The failures. The absolute, proven wrong-ness of all of it. Doesn’t matter. The reformers’ goal wasn’t to ever be “right” on any of these things…common core, VAM, etc etc etc. The reformers’ goal was always to privatize, take over. Its a land grab! The tools and arguments to get to the “grab” part…the validity of those tools and arguments…are and always have been DISPOSABLE. The point is the grab….the take over…the privatization. Like with Trump, even when confronted with the failures and deeply wrongheadedness of their individual projects, the reformers shrug it off in favor of the broader goal. They’ll take tactical hits, but their overall strategy remains fully unchanged. Their march forward continues. Their narrative is the loudest. Their failures mostly shielded and even ignored from the broader public discourse. We are clear about the failures, but John Q. Public, for the most part, they associate things like charter schools with improving public education. The teachers’ unions are complicit in this with their claims of victory at all times, ignoring the wildly unchallenged land grab that is ongoing.
Nobody on the broader public stage is calling this what it is, an old-school-capitalist land grab of public space. Nobody is issuing a broad, thoroughgoing counter-narrative to the reformers that addresses the philosophical issues here. The reformers are in the enviable spot where all if their utilitarian tools can fail and yet their broader march towards their goal is left undamaged.
The educational reform movement should not be addressed via arguments based in the world of education. It should be addressed as the economic-political land grab that it is. That is our main failure here. We are counter-attacking from the place of educational thinking rather than a broader philosophical place. We, as yet, do not have a loud, sustained, compelling counter-narrative to the reformers. Them being wrong, all the time, does not matter! Lets look at the Gilded Age as our guide. The robber-barons were all wrong…the rape of resources and public space, the wild abuse of human capital, the impacts on everything, the hyper-economic stratification that their programs ushered in….all of it wrong in detail. All of their arguments as to why they should be given public resources and space, etc…..all wrong. But they won.
Failed ideas. Failed programs. Failed leaders. Failed charters. The reform movement, I promise you, is designed to handle those failures. They understand that once they grab the space, it never goes back to the public. Thats the point. They’ll figure out how to most efficiently monetize their grab later. The oil industry grabbed the rights and then figured out how to market this black goo later.
We really need to take the reformers legs out from under them philosophically and rhetorically….and the way to do that IS NOT, clearly, to prove their tools wrong with educational research. (I get it…its important to do and have. I agree and know) Not working though. Why? Because its hardly the point. Just like how the robber barons were not put off their agenda by technical, inside-baseball arguments.
The butcher’s bill of reformers’ failures is great, but it gives me no hope as yet.
“They understand that once they grab the space, it never goes back to the public. Thats the point. They’ll figure out how to most efficiently monetize their grab later. ”
This is the scariest and most accurate description of what is happening in Denver. Land and facility grab: Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on brand new facilities for mostly untested charter schools (over 50 charters at last count, over 20 more in the pipeline ). Union membership at a frighteningly low percentage (“reformer” goal to kill unions). And yet the data shows academic failure after academic failure. Dizzying ignoring or spinning or manipulating of data. (DATAISM). And now a unanimous board bought and paid for by the “reformers.”
While I am very appreciative of Dr. Ravitch’s narrative of the failures – and there are oh so many – I am seeing no slow down in the push to privatization in Denver. That scares me.
NYSTEACHER: I agree that there is plenty of work to be done and that the reformers compare in substance to the robber barons. That is why the public has to understand what is a stake. The only hope for change is that the public votes out the complicit members of the legislatures so the laws that give corporations tax breaks, write-offs and credits change. If the government no longer incentivized the destruction of public education, only the true zealots would remain in the game. It would help to take the steam out of their momentum.
I agree except I would say the reformers’ goal was mainly to get their hands on public revenue which some enterprising individuals had researched how to do through NCLB and the tax code. Even when you analyze the motives of the ideologues (union-busters, privatizers, etc.) it’s about money. So, yes, rational arguments about education fail to change minds because it was never about education.
I had the exact reaction you did.
The failures DO matter. With every failure they lose credibility. With every failure a rat or two leaves their ship. With every failure, their limited toolbox for destruction shrinks. And, every failure makes us stronger. And as the failures and scandals mount (NCLB, Common Core, PARCC, SBAC, VAM, AYP, TFA, Charters, 74 Club, deified data, scroted lessons, EngageNY, Marzano and Danielson, etc.) they will eventually move on to the next shiny thing. They are not in this for the long haul; its just not in their DNA. The business/corporate model is doomed to fail. They cannot escape the truth of this simple lyric: “Castles made of sand slip into the sea, eventually.”
“No one can say with assurance that the test scores weed out bad teachers and identify the best.”
That’s got to be in the running for “understatement of the decade.”
Stuart Yeh (University of Minnesota) , did “A Reanalysis of the Effects of Teacher
Replacement Using Value-Added Modeling” and found that studies done on reliability show VAM to be no better than flipping a coin (slightly worse, in fact)
“The intertemporal reliability of value-added teacher rankings was investigated
by Aaronson et al. (2007), Ballou (2005), Koedel and Betts (2007),
and McCaffrey et al. (2009). In each study, VAM was used to rank teacher
performance from high to low. In each study, a majority of teachers who
ranked in the lowest quartile or lowest quintile shifted out of that quartile
(or quintile) the following year (see Tables 1 and 2). Furthermore, a majority
of teachers who ranked in the highest quartile or quintile shifted out of
that quartile (or quintile) the following year (see Tables 1 and 2).
….
“In the case of value-added rankings, it is inappropriate to infer that a
teacher should be hired or fired based on the rankings from any given
year. Since this inference would be inappropriate, the results of valueadded
teacher rankings are not valid for the purpose of high-stakes decisions
regarding hiring and firing. In short, VAM lacks validity for the
purpose of high-stakes decisions regarding individual teachers. ”
While some researchers suggest averaging two or more years of rankings
the issue of validity once again (McCaffrey et al., 2009). Furthermore, it
would not be uncommon for data to be missing in a way that would prevent
averaging. For large numbers of teachers, it would be impractical. (Newton et al
2010).
Regardless, when two years of rankings are used for tenure decisions,
intertemporal reliability remains low: In reading, data from North
Carolina indicate that 68% of teachers ranked in the bottom quintile shift
out of that quintile after tenure (indicated by a weighted average of all
post-tenure observations), and 54% of teachers ranked in the top quintile shift out of that quintile post tenure (Goldhaber & Hansen, 2008). When three years of rankings are used, reliability is even worse: 74% of teachers ranked in the bottom quintile shift out of that quintile post-tenure, and 56% of teachers ranked in the top quintile shift out of that quintile post tenure (Goldhaber & Hansen, 2008). In math reliability is somewhat better, but over half of all teachers in the bottom and top quintiles shift out of those quintiles post tenure (Goldhaber & Hansen, 2008).
“These results were confirmed by a second value-added analysis, also
using data from North Carolina, which found that more than half of
all teachers who ranked in the bottom quintile shifted out of that quintile
the following year, regardless of whether one, two, three, four or
five years of data were used to predict future performance, regardless of
the subject area (math or reading), and regardless of whether a simple
or complex Bayes estimator was used to improve predictive accuracy”
//end quote
The volatility of VAM scores is hardly a big secret known only to researchers like Yeh and those he references. Gary Rubenstein, who analyzed VAM results from NY city, found very similar results with regard to reliability (or more precisely, lack thereof)
Very poor (essentially non existent) reliability is only one of the myriad problems associated with VAM — though it is a killer, because it means unequivocally that VAM is not valid as a basis for decisions about individual teachers (especially high stakes ones like firing and tenure).
Those who claim that VAM is reliable are either: 1) woefully misinformed or 2) dishonest. (They are free to take their pick which applies to them).
Stuart Yeh talks about the above findings in the video on this Teachers College Record page
The results of this research should go to the judge deciding the Lederman case.
I have read your book and every blog you post! I am thrilled with this latest article.I retired after 35 years of teaching and staff training in New York State 10 years ago.I still remain a dedicated public school educator and have posted critical blogs of yours the past few years so my peers would persevere and continue to do what they know best…look at each child as an individual, observe where they are on their education journey and guide and teach accordingly. You have been persistent in your fight! Thank you!
Reform is moving full speed ahead in Newark. The district is on the verge of trifurcation; charter, community and traditional.
Abigail,
What is the difference between community and traditional schools. Please explain.
TIA!
Duane
The reformsters just don’t have the grit to stay the long course. They are flibbertigibbets, summed up by the Teach for Awhile philosophy: I’ll do this for a little while, then move on. Oh, and I don’t need to really learn anything about all that because I have naturally curly red hair.
Real teachers have been most affected by the incursions of these vandals into our schools. Long term teachers know that trends come and go, but these assaults have had real staying power and real victims, such as Rigoberto Ruelas. As a result, some of our public school systems are barely viable: Newark, NOLA, Camden, Philly, LAUSD. But every day teachers get up, go to their classrooms, greet their kids and spend their energies making up for what is lacking in the sphere outside their orbit.
The knowledge that people like Dr. Diane Ravitch are standing up, encouraging, cheerleading and documenting the reformsters’ absurdities and failures buoys many at the bottom of the food chain every day, making life in schools better for teachers and the kids in their care.
MORGANIZING EDUCATION?
(from Thorstein Veblen: An American Economic Perspective)
Neo-liberalism in both economics and politics is enjoying a stranglehold on society. Its arrogant supporters blithely dismiss any information that might contradict their rigid dogma and treat all who would challenge them with contempt.
To make matters worse, the neoliberals also dominate the media and academia, making respectful or even intelligent debate virtually impossible.
As is the case today, information about corporate behavior was readily available. Progressive journalists, often called muckrakers, were already revealing the unconscionable practices of the great corporations, which wielded state power to take advantage of against workers, bilked investors, and bled government resources with the aid of an army of corrupt politicians. Even without the muckrakers, public opinion was hostile to the obvious widespread corporate and political malfeasance.
Economists shielded themselves from criticism by pretending that their analysis adhered to the highest standards of scientific rigor by adopting a formalistic approach.
Toward this end they built their theory upon a foundation of unquestioned axioms, which they discovered through introspection rather than through scientific research.
Although (THEY) might not have been profitable, their owners profited mightily. They set up their own shell companies, and then contracted with them for construction. By paying double the actual cost of construction, they could funnel money to themselves at the expense of the (THEY). Investors were left holding the bag. At this stage,(THEY). could withhold productive capacity one way or another, while forcing others to pay excessive costs.
Wholesale purchases of politicians allowed the (THEY) to win huge subsidies, which deprived the government of funds that might have potentially met peoples’ needs. Finally, because (THEY) emphasized subterfuge rather than productive efficiency, their modern technology failed to come anywhere near its potential. Rather than produce to meet social and economic needs, other considerations took precedence, such as the opportunity to improve the value of the owners’ private land holdings. Efficiency was also dissipated in wastefully spending needed only to forestall the plans of competitors?
The emergence of their new professional societies suggested a possibility of the development of a larger society based on rational principles than might benefit society as a whole, rather than individualistic profit maximization of the predators.
Why would investors want to sink their money in failing ventures? The answer is that dishonest bookkeeping — especially with appeals to goodwill — could create illusions of profit potential, where little, or even none, existed. By hiding losses behind a smokescreen of goodwill, business could pump up the corporation’s balance sheet with goodwill in the hopes that such calculations could appeal to investors’ willingness to part with their funds.
Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929)
The (THEY) that Veblen was referring to were the “Railroads” but as you can easily see,(THEY) could be replaced by 21st century “corporate reformers” with their attack on Public Education!
While the “Railroads” were not profitable, those controlling the railroads made huge profits. As today’s Charters, the Charters are not profitable but those that build and own the Charters are making huge profits on taxpayer’s money.
Thanks Tim^O^ for that little bit of “the more things change the more they stay the same” history.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Disruption fed by greed and an addiction to power is not good for OUR children.
Where did they go? Well, MA is holding on tight to our education reformsters. Mitchell Chester of PARCC and so many summits on reform, is still State Commissioner; James Peyser of New Schools Venture Fund is our Secretary of Education,; Paul Reville-former Secretary- is now on the Board of the TFA-like Sposato Graduate School of Ed.,in which Masters Degrees of “Effective” Teaching are given; Governor Baker-who really wants to lift the charter cap;. But we also have Barbara Madeloni of the the MA Teachers Assn. who keeps on going and Dr. Sandra Stotsky, formerly of the BOE and the CCSS validating (not!) committee. AND we have quite a few parents who have recently worked hard to get a ballot initiative on for next year to repeal CCSS. So, we’re not done in MA!!
And Peyser is not having such a good day. Turns out he’s on the board of Families for Excellent Schools. There are calls for his resignation by Massachusetts Jobs with Justice in the aftermath of their report on the privatization of our schools:
http://www.massjwj.net/news/jwj-research-action-committee-report-wall-street-money-and-massachusetts-schools
Press release:
Community Coalition to Release Report Exposing Out of State Money
Influencing Massachusetts Education Reform
Calls on Secretary of Education, James Peyser to Step Down From Group
Groups representing community, faith, labor, parents and students wants alternatives to school closings and charter expansion.
Boston—Parents and community activists will release a research report today that reveals internal communication and out of state financial contributions to Families for Excellent Schools,
a new charter advocacy group. In addition, they will call on James Peyser, Massachusetts Secretary of Education, to remove himself from the board of directors of this group.
Families for Excellent Schools, a member of the Great Schools MA Coalition, claims parents and students in Massachusetts make decisions and lead their organization.
However, with significant resources coming from local billionaires, out of state hedge funds and with Secretary of Education James Peyser sitting on their board of directors,
they appear to be looking to politicians and Wall Street investors for direction.
“We believe it is unethical for Secretary Peyser to sit on the board of a group that is directly lobbying his office on an important issue.” said Russ Davis, Executive Director of
Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, who sponsored the report. “We call on him to step down from the board of Families for Excellent Schools’ if he hasn’t done so already.” added Davis.
WHO: Jobs with Justice Research Action Committee; parents and community activists who care about protecting public education and valuable public school resources.
WHAT: Parents and community leaders will release report findings. (attached). Also at http://www.massjwj.net
WHEN: December, 15, 10am
WHERE: Boston City Council Hearing on Education, Boston City Hall, 5th Floor
St. Louis has one of the most unique approaches to supporting privatization in the country……..public radio, public television, and the Post Dispatch, as well as the rest of the media simply pretend the opposition does not exist—within Missouri, it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The PD has nine forums for sports, including one for soccer, but none for education. Peter Graves wrote an excellent feature article about what the state testing actually tests…..level of wealth within the districts……..an editorial supported it……..that was 2 or 3 years ago…….he has not been heard from since. Diane Ravitch? Who?
Peter Downs….not Peter Graves….sorry.
“. . . including one for soccer.”
Come on Joe, St. Louis has always been a soccer city (after of course the Cardinals). I grew up playing soccer wanting to be the next Pele, actually getting to see him when I was 13 with his Brazilian club Dos Santos playing against the St. Louis Stars in ’68, a 2-2 draw. Five of the 11 starters on the 1950 team that defeated England in the World Cup, shocking the world, were from St. Louis and the only paper in all the US that had a reporter at the game was the StL PD. Perhaps ancient and arcane history but those of us who grew up then in the St. Louis area were/are enamored of soccer.
Thanks for the great job you have done Diane. You have inspired us all. You have demonstrated for us how democracy can be made to work in this new age of the super rich and electronic communication. Keep pouring it on.
Besides Jeb Bush, other anti-public ed politicians have not fared well either:
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker made an early exit from the presidential race. Apparently the skeletons in his closet are too numerous and too obvious.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been exposed as a crook (Bridge-gate) and a bully (almost anytime he has a microphone). The only reason his fortunes took an uptick in the last week or so is because of the narrowing of the GOP field as players like Rick Perry, Scott Walker, and a few other also-ran candidates dropped out.
Indiana Governor Mike Pence once was looked upon as a possible “moderate” GOP candidate for President. As Governor of my state, he has continued to put ideology ahead of the common good after his Keystone Kops performance with the RFRA (Religiouis Freedom) bill this spring, followed by catastrophic shutdown of the major interstate between Indianapolis and Chicago. After Glenda Ritz became Superintendent of the Hoosier State, he and his GOP cronies worked to take away her power by creating (and later disbanding) a duplicate board of education. Polls suggest that Pence’s support is below 50%, making a rematch against his 2012 opponent (John Gregg) practically a dead heat.
Indiana is so right-leaning that any GOP politician who doesn’t gain the public’s support has the intelligence of a potted plant.
I await the good news when anti-public ed Governors Kasich (Ohio), Snyder (Michigan) and Rauner (Illinois) crater in the polls.
Methinks flimsy premises, asinine algorithms, and miscreant micromanagement have caused the chicken$ to come home to roo$t.
reform |riˈfôrm|
verb [ with obj. ]
1 make changes in (something, typically a social, political, or economic institution or practice) in order to improve it
Why do we call it Education Reform? Where is the improvement?
Why do tax dollars continue to support failed reforms?
“Things are not going well for…”
Not true. Things are going extremely well for our neoliberal masters.
Reblogged this on Education Talk New Orleans.
As a outsider (a parent researching ed reform as I decide what to do for my kids who are 10 and 13) I’m confused by some of the things listed as evidence that everything done by ‘privatizers’ is completely, always bad. Do you think it’s possible for anything good to come out of initiatives done by “privatizers”? Many things you mention are not directly taking students away from public schools or creating charter schools – common core initiatives, teacher evaluations, etc. and I don’t see how they help grow charter or private schools. And the list of what’s happened to people who are pro-charter are ad hominem arguments.
Anyway, I very much like http://www.modernlearners.com (Audrey Watters, Bruce Dixon, and especially Will Richardson) and their take on the misguided focus on test scores, lack of focus on important skills and questioning what kids need to learn. I thought Will’s recent Ted talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxyKNMrhEvY was very worthwhile and points to the foundational challenge for ed reform.
These educators are also very suspicious of anything business-related around education (especially ed-tech) but I wonder where innovation and change is going to come from, if business/non-profits are not involved. There’s no way it’ll come in time for my kids thru the Dept of Education or our State Dept of Education – Common Core took 10 years to get to California, for goodness sake, and I’ve lived through the roll out with my kids – no lesson plans, no textbooks, no extra hours for teachers having to take on this new load.
So I’m working out what I can do for my kids OUTSIDE of school to ensure they can thrive as adults – which to me means developing the 4Cs, discovering their passions/interests, applying what they know to real problems/real life, being self-directed, and becoming lifelong on-demand learners…as well as a few 21st century skills like data analysis, critical thinking, and even coding.
I can’t depend on schools to provide these things. Honestly, if I could find a school here providing them, I’d send my kids there – pubic or charter. I think our public elementary school is starting in a small way to change – my kids get an hour a week on a ‘passion project’ – complete freedom around the topic they want to study!! A welcome step in the right direction. Jr high and high schools are a very different story tho.
I promise it didn’t take 10 years for Common Core to reach California. The ink wasn’t dry until 2010. California is overrun with charters, especially Los Angeles. The reason there is so much suspicion of tech is not because people don’t like it, they do. But because there is justified suspicion of tech developed to replace teachers, mass-produce teaching, and data mine children for profit. Not many educators expect hedge funders and corporate execs to come up with innovations to improve education. Their ideas are about cost-cutting.
Thanks Diana; our School Superintendent said that (10 years) at an event last year! I think he meant from initial conception…And I do see that tech used to replace teachers, replace the blackboard, to deliver the same content is missing the point and not helpful.
San Diego Weekly Reader, Sept. 2014, reports the reformers don’t give up! NO! Say it isn’t so! Alan Bersin has moved to New York, and Hillary is considering him for US secretary of education! NEA has endorsed Hill, Bersin is not a friend of organized labor- please don’t let this be. I so wanted to vote for Hillary! Why hasn’t Bersin joined the ranks of his peers on this list? Because he could be coming back!