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Breaking News! California Democratic Party Blasts Corporate Education Reform: UPDATE

By dianerav
April 15, 2013 //
23

The California Democratic Party passed a resolution opposing corporate education reform.

It specifically criticized Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst and the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ group called “Democrats for Education Reform” as fronts for Republicans and corporate interests.

See the story in the Los Angeles Times here. The headline repeats the “reform” claim that they just want to “overhaul” schools, when the resolution below correctly describes their agenda.

The message is getting out. The public is beginning to understand the privatizers’ game of talking “reform” and “great teachers” while dismantling public education and the teaching profession.

This is great news!

Here is the resolution:

Supporting California’s Public Schools and Dispelling the Corporate “Reform” Agenda
Whereas, the reform initiatives of Students First, rely on destructive anti-educator policies that do nothing for students but blame educators and their unions for the ills of society, make testing the goal of education, shatter communities by closing their public schools, and see public schools as potential profit centers and children as measureable commodities; and

Whereas, the political action committee, entitled Democrats for Education Reform is funded by corporations, Republican operatives and wealthy individuals dedicated to privatization and anti-educator initiatives, and not grassroots democrats or classroom educators; and

Whereas, the billionaires funding Students First and Democrats for Education Reform are supporting candidates and local programs that would dismantle a free public education for every student in California and replace it with company run charter schools, non-credentialed teachers and unproven untested so-called “reforms”;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party reaffirms its commitment to free accessible public schools for all which offer a fair, substantive opportunity to learn with educators who have the right to be represented by their union, bargain collectively and have a voice in the policies which affect their schools, classrooms and their students;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party send this resolution to all elected Democratic leaders in California, publicize the corporate and Republican funding of these groups and work with the authors of this resolution to dispel the false reforms and support the real needs of the classroom: trained teachers, adequate funding, safe and clean facilities, diverse and stimulating curriculum and access to pre-school and higher education.

Categories California, Democrats, Democrats for Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst

Breaking News: John Merrow Finds Mystery Memo in Rhee Scandal

By dianerav
April 11, 2013 //
52

Someone in the District of Columbia education department leaked a memo to John Merrow about the cheating scandal. The memo warned Chancellor Michelle Rhee about the likelihood of widespread cheating in the DC Public schools. Rhee did not act on it. She should have. The allegations were not investigated. They were brushed aside.

This is a very important post.

It is a bombshell.

Merrow calls the post “Michelle Rhee’s Reign of Error.” It is funny that he borrowed the title of my new book, which will be published September 3. The “Reign of Error” applies not only to Rhee but to No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the whole lot of “reforms” that are in reality a soul-crushing, data-driven approach to education. The so-called reform movement is bad for students, bad for teachers, bad for principals, and ruinous to education.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Testing

How StudentsFirst Turns Facts into Myths

By dianerav
April 8, 2013 //
6

Matthew Di Carlo dissects the latest effort by Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst to sell the idea that evaluating teachers by test scores is accurate, unbiased, and necessary.

Di Carlo analyzes the “myths” and discovers that some of them are facts.

This is embarrassing. Rhee really needs to hire a competent research department.

 

Categories Michelle Rhee, StudentsFirst, Teacher Evaluations, Testing

Where Does Michelle Rhee Live?

By dianerav
March 30, 2013 //
24

Michelle Rhee keeps raising interesting questions. It is hard to ignore her, because she is the face of the corporate reform movement, the one who goes on television to complain about the huge numbers of “bad” teachers and the importance of weakening or eliminating collective bargaining and the great value of privatizing public schools. Apparently, despite her four years in D.C., plus the additional years of her deputy Kaya Henderson, the District of Columbia still has way too many “bad” teachers because it continues to be at the bottom of NAEP rankings. When will we see D.C. rise to the top as Rhee predicted?

Is she a public school parent? Yes, one daughter attends a public magnet school, and the other attends an elite private school. Both in Tennessee.

Where does she live? In interviews in Tennessee, she says she lives in Tennessee, but she is also the wife of the mayor of Sacramento and lives in California. Does she vote in Tennessee or California?

Is she a Republican or a Democrat? She says she is a Democrat, but most of the candidates supported by StudentsFirst were Republicans. Of 105 candidates her group funded, 90 were Republicans. Sort of strange for a Democrat. She poured almost a million dollars into Tennessee to guarantee that the Republicans gained a super-majority. In one Democratic primary, she gave $100,000 to a voucher-loving conservative Democrat to beat a liberal pro-public school Democrat.

And the few Democrats she supported were in favor of vouchers and other Republican ideas. She has also given millions to defeat collective bargaining, which Democrats tend to support. Or used to.

She is a woman of mystery.

Categories Education Reform, Privatization, StudentsFirst, Tennessee

NYC Parents and Students Mobilizing for Real Reform

By dianerav
March 24, 2013 //
9

As the mayoral election of 2013 approaches, New York City parents and students are speaking up about what is most important to them. They got hold of an old school bus, painted it blue, and are driving around the city to raise awareness among other parents and students.

The article linked here shows how parents and their children are trying to inform voters and the candidates about their opposition to high-stakes testing and their desire for a well-rounded education, including art and music.

The low point of the article–hilarious really–is when a spokesperson for StudentsFirst, which has no roots in New York City, pooh-poohed the parents’ and students’ concerns:

“Ms. Boyd of Students First New York dismissed the bus trip. “A lot of what they’re doing is political theater, rallying parents around issues that are nuanced and complicated with not a lot of explanation, and then going forward saying, ‘Look, these are parents’ issues,’ ” she said.”

Categories Accountability, Bloomberg, Michael, Corporate Reformers, New York City, Parents, Students, StudentsFirst

NBCT Teacher Beats Rhee Candidate in West Sacramento

By dianerav
March 7, 2013 //
5

National Board Certified Teacher Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez won a hard-fought election to the school board in West Sacramento, beating a man who works for Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst. She got more than 50% of the vote, he got about 25%.

As we saw in Los Angeles and earlier in Louisiana, the corporate reformers have decided that they can use their huge funds to buy state and local school boards.

It worked in Louisiana, where their conquest of the state school board cleared the way for vouchers and charters and efforts to destroy the teaching profession (so far, the courts have ruled that the funding for vouchers is unconstitutional and struck down the law dismantling the teaching profession on procedural grounds).

But the billionaires failed miserably in Los Angeles, where their primary target was Steve Zimmer. Despite the millions of dollars of out of state money used to distribute scurrilous attacks on Steve, he won by a 52-48 margin.

Now, the Wall Street hedge fund managers (DFER) are crowing that they “won,” because the board president Monica Garcia (with $1 million) beat four unfunded candidates. Robert Skeels, who came in second, raised $20,000.

Goliath looks foolish.

Beaten by an NBCT.

Beaten by boots on the ground.

Give up, Goliath. Your day on the hill is coming to an end.

Categories California, Corporate Reformers, StudentsFirst

What Happened in Alabama: The GOP Coup

By dianerav
March 3, 2013 //
5

The Republicans in Alabama are not usually thought of as the guardians of minority children, the poor, and oppressed. Last week, they slipped through a bill that allows tax credits for private and religious schools. The cover story is that it is “for the children.” The reality is that it is intended to destroy public education and support privatization.

Here is the story of how it happened.

Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst hailed the secretive legislation.

Categories Alabama, Privatization, StudentsFirst

Who Gets Walton Foundation $$$$$$$$$$$?

By dianerav
March 2, 2013 //
9

It is useful every so often to review the list of organizations that are funded by the ultra-rightwing Walton Foundation. This past year, the foundation gave out $158 million for “education reform.” As you will see, almost all of that money went to support charter schools and vouchers and organizations that advocate for privatization.

Of course, this is the foundation’s list of grants, and it does not include the millions of dollars that the members of the Walton family have poured into privatization campaigns and elections in Georgia, Washington State, and elsewhere.

Categories Corporate Reformers, For-Profit, Privatization, Stand for Children, StudentsFirst, Teach for America TFA, U.S. education, Vouchers, Walton Foundation

Nashville Leaders Fight GOP Plan to Kill Local Control

By dianerav
February 20, 2013 //
7

Republican leaders in the Tennessee legislature are pushing ALEC model legislation to strip the Metro Nashville school board of its power to authorize charters. This is intended to punish Nashville for refusing to support Arizona-based Great Hearts Academy, a corporate chain that wants to open in an affluent white neighborhood. Memphis is also included in the proposal.

Nashville leaders, excepting the corporate-friendly mayor, oppose the legislation. The mayor believes that the power to expand charters is more important than local control. .

The ALEC bill has the support of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst, the Wall Street hedge fund managers’ Democrats for Education Reform, and Stand for Children. In other words, the usual cheerleaders for corporate reform.

Opposition to the ALEC legislation was so intense from parents in Nashville and Memphis (the only districts targeted to lose local control) that the House Education Committee delayed a vote on the measure.

Supporters of public education are not giving up without a fight.

Categories ALEC, Charter Schools, Democrats for Education Reform, Stand for Children, StudentsFirst, Tennessee

Everything You Wanted to Know About Michelle Rhee

By dianerav
February 11, 2013 //
22

Here is Michelle Rhee, as reviewed by Mercedes Schneider in part viii of her study of the board of the National Council of Teacher Quality.

Mercedes Schneider is a teacher in Louisiana who holds a Ph.D. In statistics and research methods.

Here she is at her best, doing a close examination of the life and work of Michelle Rhee.

Categories NCTQ, Rhee, Michelle, StudentsFirst, Teach for America TFA, Teacher Evaluations
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