No matter what the calendar says, it’s springtime for charters in Connecticut.
The State Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor was a member of the board of Achievement First, a charter chain in Connecticut. He believes in charters, like his colleague John King, the state commissioner in New York, whose only experience was in the charter sector (Uncommon Schools).
Jonathan Pelto has been writing about the massing of hedge fund money in support of the charter agenda in Connecticut.
Be sure to read Pelto’s link to the excellent article by Stamford parent advocate Wendy Lecker.
One consistent finding in the research is that charters have not been successful in taking over low-performing schools and doing a “turn-around.” KIPP tried it at Cole Elementary School in Denver and gave up. Charters prefer to start from scratch so they can mold students from the beginning.
Let’s keep watch and see what happens in Connecticut.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I wanted to post the closing of Wendy’s piece as it illustrates the supports a school receives once they become charterized…prior to this there was not much money for Milner…now the charter fairy dust will take over:
Despite board opposition and minimal public input, Kishimoto and Jumoke plowed ahead with their plan, presenting it to the state board in August: Milner’s student-teacher ratio would be reduced to eight-to-one, and the ELL and special education personnel would be doubled. The school day and year would be lengthened. And the district would make “significant” capital investments.
In fact, the district has suddenly found $2 million to improve the school facility.
Since those changes are publicly funded, the question is why Hartford failed to make those investments before. When it was only the needs of the students, the city failed to produce the resources. Yet the moment funds would flow through a private charter school company, the commitments were made.
Jumoke’s contribution to “saving” Milner is equally troubling. Jumoke’s CEO, Dr. Michael Sharpe, stated that, in order to “stabilize” the school, he planned to bar enrollment of any student arriving after October 1.
Blocking students from entering, in this mobile community, does nothing to improve their educational opportunities. If Jumoke’s “model” is so successful, then the model should work with all students. Yet Sharpe claims that in order to succeed, Jumoke must exclude students; something public schools cannot do.
Moreover, Jumoke’s plan to change enrollment policies is prohibited under Connecticut law.
Sharpe also plans to tell Milner parents that 20 unexplained absences result in a referral to the Department of Children and Family Services. When challenged at the state Board of Education meeting, he quickly explained that it is state law and that in his years at Jumoke he only referred one case.
Threatening legal action against parents is not a welcoming way to stress the importance of attendance. Perhaps the intent is not to welcome but rather to scare off.
Jumoke appears to be more concerned about making Jumoke look good on paper, even at the expense of serving the children who could attend Milner.
Commissioner Pryor’s comments even seem to confirm that this “turnaround” plan is not about educating the diverse students who make up Milner’s student body but about expanding charter schools in Connecticut.
Read more: http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Wendy-Lecker-Helping-kids-or-helping-charter-3884366.php#ixzz27JY4BFya
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The Hartford Copurant is asking people to submit questions for the Chris Murphy-Linda McMahon debate on our local Fox affiliate (opinion@courant.com). Fellow Nutmeggers, what should we ask them regarding school rheeform?
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Are you aware of the costs that will be passed on to school districts to implement the new tests coming in 2015 (SBAC – Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium)?
Are you aware the tests are completed on computers? Will the costs of the hardware and software be passed on to each district? Has a feasibility study been completed to assess what the needs will be for each school district?
What are the total costs to the taxpayers to implement this new testing regime?
What is your belief on the use of standardized testing vs. authentic assessments designed by teachers?
Do you support the use of standardized test scores to evaluate teachers?
Are you aware that more administrators will be needed to implement the new evaluation system under SB 458? Dr. Joseph Cirasuolo, of CAPSS, stated that school districts will have to lay off teachers to hire administrators to perform evaluations to eliminate more teachers. How will eliminating more teachers and making class sizes larger improve teaching and learning?
What is your stance on class size?
Public funds are being siphoned off to privately run schools, such as charter schools that are not governed by a public board of education. Would you support or oppose increasing funding for these privately run schools?
Do you support mayoral control of a school system by utilizing an appointed board rather than an elected board?
Do you support the concept that all publicly funded schools should be judged by the same basic metrics?
Should the salaries of charter school directors or charter management company CEO’s exceed the salaries of CT superintendents who are responsible for the same number of schools, students and teachers?
Do you hold teachers solely responsible for the ills of our society, such as: poverty, crime, unemployment? Do you believe that a great teacher for every student is the solution to poverty?
Would you hold charter schools accountable and by the same standards the State of CT uses to evaluate and takeover public schools? If a charter doesn’t meet the expectations they require of public schools, can a charter school be subject to a turn around?
CT’s Education Cost Sharing Formula remains at least $1 billion under-funded. This lack of funding is particularly hurting poorer communities. Do you believe increasing ECS funding should be a top priority in the next two years?
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I hope you send these, Linda!
@MOM: Who says we are following a dumbed-down curriculum? I have high expectations for my students, and so do their parents, and our school district. Please don’t make general accusations about failing schools. Please inform yourself more on the struggles inner city teachers face. I do not believe for one minute that teachers do not push their students as hard as they can to succeed. Remember: most parents are happy with the schools their children are in, but many believe the “failed public schools” propaganda. If most parents are happy with their schools, how can so many schools be failing?
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Should I just send them to that email? – opinion@courant.com
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Yes, please! Despite me adding an extra letter to the Courant’s name while typing, the email address is correct!
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Done!
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The way to fight against anything you oppose is, make your product better.
Parents are fed up with their kids not learning. (although that is the goal of the elites)
It’s up to the teachers and administrators to reject the anti-knowledge agenda and teach those kids academic content.
Offer cursive writing again. Make sure the kids are learning and YES MEMORIZING basic math facts. Teach them grammar and real science instead of carrying out the environmental political agenda.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/city_schools_plan_UoW7ke5l2KRwg43nHzt97H
In that article, the NYC schools are giving out the morning after pill and birth control pills without parental knowledge.
Geesh, I wonder why they target the black kids for all of this? Oh that’s right, the eugenists can no longer force sterilizations on them legally. NOW they just hand out their population control methods like candy.
Well informed parents know that the birth control pill is a type one carcinogen that increases the risk of cancer in those young girls. But remember, to eugenists like Bill GATES, this doesn’t matter.
Wake up teachers!! Stop following the dumbed down agenda and the social engineering and get back to academic excellence.
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The assumptions you make about what “all” teachers do are staggering. I do not do any of the things you accuse teachers of doing. Parents of students in my classes are not “fed up with their students not learning.” In fact, I often get comments from parents that there students have learned more about history in my class than at any other time.
I’m not an abberation, either. My colleagues all work just as hard and students learn a great deal from them as well.
So why is there a charter school in my area? Because some parents from a wealthier area of the school’s boundaries do not want their kids mingling with kids in poverty. That has nothing to do with the quality of the school
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Yikes! “their students!” That’s what I get for rapidly typing on a weekend!
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MOMwithAbrain – it does seem to me that children are not their parents property, so allowing students to make some responsible choices for themselves seems reasonable.
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Uh, MOM, a few questions:
What is the “anti-knowledge agenda”? Who is behind it and what evidence do you have that it exists?
What do you mean by “academic content”? What is your evidence that it is not being taught?
If you believe we should be teaching “cursive writing” should we also be teaching them how to churn butter and hunt rabbits? When do we get to drop archaic, unnecessary skill-building to make room for relevant things that are needed for these kids’ futures?
And gosh, as a high school science teacher, I am trying as hard as I can to teach them “real science”, but how can I when all they have learned to do is MEMORIZE stuff.
And one comment: I think you need to go back to whoever is telling you what to post here and get your story straight. Bill Gates is on your side. He’s trying to get rid of those bad teachers and replace them with good guys like Sal Kahn, who will help the kids MEMORIZE stuff so they can do well on tests.
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Are you for real? You equate cursive writing with butter churning and rabbit hunting? How are these kids going to be able to read historic documents if they cannot read cursive? Is that not important, because we’ll just teach them whatever history we want them to know? Bill Gates is on our side? Sal Kahn–isn’t he that tech educator guy? Memorizing stuff “so they can do well on tests”–is that what we want for our kids? But in your paragraph above, you complain about memorization. Which is it? Or are you just a troll?
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msavage, I didn’t say anything about learning to *read* cursive, I was just talking about writing. And yes, it is approaching as irrelevant as butter churning, because nearly everything is digitized and searchable.
Sorry, maybe you aren’t familiar with educational issues. I’ll try to fill in the blanks a little better:
Bill Gates is on the side of people like MOMwithabrain who want to reduce critical thinking and increase MEMORIZATION for increased standardized test scores.
There are a LOT of tech educator guys, so Sal Kahn is not “that” guy. But he is the one doing the most to use technology to reduce teaching to training and remove critical thinking and problem-solving from the curriculum. I do believe he’s doing this inadvertently. I believe Sal is a nice guy and very generous, but what he’s doing is 19th century teaching with 21st century tools. We have learned a lot about people’s brains since then and it doesn’t agree with that teaching methodology very well.
I’m writing from the perspective of a teacher who doesn’t agree with MOM’s perspective, if that helps you interpret my comment.
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Wendy Lecker is a voice with backbone here in CT, and a mom of public school kids besides being a public-interest lawyer. We love her insights.
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It’s funny how the purse strings suddenly loosen once a charter gets involved.
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Especially when your commissioner founded a charter school and a charter management company and he never taught, but he is our eduexpert. Why did we waste time getting an education degree and teaching for 20+ years. Who knew we could be the big boss of the entire state with no experience?
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Of course, let’s not forget what they tell us, “Throwing more money at the problem won’t help,” (unless it goes to their pockets). They also do not mind experimenting with our money.
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