A local school board in Florida rejected the application of a for-profit charter operator.
The board said they had had a bad experience with the last charter school, which closed for low performance.
They also knew that this applicant had some problems, financially and academically.
When the Metro Nashville school board rejected the Great Hearts charter because of its inadequate plans to serve the diverse students of the city, the TFA state commissioner went berserk and withheld $3.4 million in state aid from the district.
Corporate reformers hate local school boards because they can’t control them.
In the last election, they spent millions to try to buy seats on some local boards but there are so many of them. They bought the Indianapolis school board; they previously bought the Denver board. But they suffered setbacks in Austin, Santa Clara County (where they spent $250,000 to defeat Anna Song, yet she won in a landslide, spending only $6,000).
Independent thinking drives corporate reformers crazy.
They want a free market in schooling.
They want charters to open wherever and whenever they want.
They say, “Let the consumer sort them out. If parents choose a bad charter, it’s their choice.”
That is why the Georgia referendum created a commission that will be stacked with privatization advocates.
That is why ALEC has model legislation to enable state commissions to overturn local decisions.
You see, the people closest to the public schools cannot be trusted by corporate reformers to do what they want. They might oppose privatization, and reformers value privatization more than local control.
Only governors, mayors and state superintendents know what is best to reform schools.
Only Wall Street hedge fund managers know what is best to reform schools they never attended, schools they would not send their own children to.
The farther removed the corporate reformers are from the community, it seems, the more they think themselves suited to make decisions for its children.
Even allies of the Obama administration think that local school boards are an obstacle to reform and want to see them disappear.
And that is why local school boards are targeted for destruction by corporate reformers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In Louisiana the recent election had an amendment to term limit school board members. It passed overwhelmingly. I’m sure edreformers look on it as a victory for them, because the public did not realize it was part of the edreform plan. The public has always been supportive of term limits for any elected office. I’m sure the public will see it differently when they see the outside money start flowing in to influence elections as it did for Orleans Parish and for the BESE elections last fall.
Louis Gerstner, retired CEO of IBM, in 2008 argued for the consolidation of school boards from the current 14,000 to 60 or so … an experienced education journalist responded,
http://hechingerreport.org/content/the-future-of-school-boards_5128/
Interesting that the debates arises again.
It’s about time, isn’t it?
ALEC has been working on this for several tears: 2009 Innovation Schools and School Districts Act and other legislation (See http://www.parentsunited.org/news/alec-exposed-starving-public-schools/)
Because, you know, ALEC is all about Jeffersonian Democracy.
…and they live in the bizarro world which was just exposed as a sham in the last election. Jefferson would be turning in his grave. Hamiltonian, yes. Federalist, yes. Jeffersonian? How are kids using Texas school books that will never even learn about Jefferson.
Another expert, Matt Miller who has never taught, but has all the solutions for what ails schools today. Get rid of the school boards. Why not? So much for local control and democracy. Sounds a lot like China. By the way, this just appeared on Sunday.
If China is doing so well, why do so many Chinese think of moving here?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-china-is-doing-so-well-why-do-so-many-chinese-want-to-move-here/2012/11/16/b139e2e2-284d-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html
Most notable is the sections on our schools and theirs.
“For their part, many Chinese have put the United States on a pedestal, envisioning a place with better schools, cleaner air and more charismatic leaders. And they are making plans to emigrate here.
But Wu said he wants his son to grow up in the United States, in particular because of the schools. This may surprise Americans used to hearing politicians warn about Chinese educational prowess.
“The nation that educates its children the best will be the nation that leads the global economy in the 21st century,” Obama said in 2010, declaring that the United States is in an “educational arms race” with places like China and India.
The United States does look to be far behind China, according to some measures. Most famously, on a test given to 15-year-olds around the world by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Chinese students came in No. 1in all three categories: reading, science and math. The United States ranked 14th, 17th and 25th, respectively.
But Yong Zhao, an expert on China’s education system, said the PISA test, as it’s known, is a misleading measurement of the quality of a country’s schools. He said China’s schools don’t do well at teaching creative thinking and encouraging students who might one day found companies.
In the United States, “the glorification of China is rampant,” said Zhao, associate dean for global education at the University of Oregon’s College of Education. Zhao grew up in the Chinese education system and immigrated to the United States after college.
But in China, he said, officials worry about whether the schools can cultivate “the next Steve Jobs,” something that Zhao says is difficult because the curriculum is so test-based.
He said China is in the middle of reforming its education system to look more like — surprise! — the one in the United States. Meanwhile, the United States is increasing standardized testing, a shift that in a way moves this country’s approach closer to China’s.”
Our education “leaders” say the should be like China. Looks as though we’re well on the way with our curriculum becoming test-based.
ALL YOU EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENT TYPES ARE IN DENIAL.
PRESIDENT OBAMA SUPPORTS GOOD PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS AND YOU ARE PARANOID ABOUT THEM! YOUR ESTABLISHMENT BOUGHT AND PAID FOR THE STANFORD STUDY, WHICH HAS BEEN DISCREDITED AS LYING WITH SKEWED STATS.
I WILL NEVER TRUST OR LOOK AT THIS SITE AGAIN;
YOU ARE ALL BEHIND THE TIMES!
/A LIFELONG EDUCATOR AND A PROF EMER
A lifelong educator and prof emer throwing a tantrum, that is. Geez, lay off the caps lock.
Gracias por salir.
Diane,
I think you exaggerate! Do you think the Gates Foundation is a ‘corporate privatizer’?
They spent a lot to get WA with the other 41 states that allow charters and only PUBLIC charters will be allowed here, and only 40 of them for 7 million people in the next five years… keep an open mind and do not lump all reformers into one target.
Good God; I had thought you were more discerning than that!
The Gates Foundation promotes privatization of public education. It also supports right-wing groups, like Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and ALEC, which want only privatization.
Charters are a form of privatization. In conservative think tanks, charters are seen as a functional substitute for vouchers, which the voters consistently rejected. And the best way to sell charters was to say they would “save minority kids from failing schools.” Oh, and they would cost less too! And there would be so few of them. Until they cost just as much, and until they grow and continue growing.
Sorry to disillusion you. Why do you think Bill Gates and Alice Walton (that progressive member of the Walton family from Arkansas) and other super-rich put up $11 million to push charters despite the opposition of PTAs, the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and almost every school board in the state of Washington?
There is no such thing as a “public” charter, any more than there is any such thing as a “public” defense contractor. Just because the money comes from the government does not mean that it is public. Once the money is in private hands, the public has very little control over – or even knowledge about – how the money is spent.
“Public” charters do not exist. ALL charter schools are private schools that get taxpayer money instead of charging tuition and have little or no oversight.
Google “Chris Cerf school goverance” and you will find a video of NJ’ s commissioner of education decry local control as the biggest problem in education!
Local control is a threat to the rheeformers. They know it and are mobilizing their wealth and influence to end it.
Ironic so many “conservatives” embrace this agenda.
No, it’s not so ironic that many “conservatives” embrace this agenda because these folks are not “conservative” but regressive. If they were true conservatives (of which I consider myself one, along with considering myself progressive-not liberal) they would be fighting for local control. The regressives are the ones that dominate the far right side of the political spectrum, hell the conservatives in the far right’s eyes are almost socialists (just to show how warped the regressive thinking is).
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
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Local Control makes “FUD” more difficult for the privateers to use. FUD is a commonly used business strategy for getting consumers to want your product. It stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Although not education related, here is a great explanation to how it is used. “Waiting for Superman” is a prime example of creating an artificial need for charter schools.Getting rid of local school boards makes it much easier to control public sentiment and use “FUD” . See:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/business/fud.htm
Our local Privatizer’s front group here in Buffalo and the local newspaper (their cheerleaders) have been banging their garbage can lids and shrieking that the mayor needs to step in and take over because school boards might involve patronage. Meanwhile the Board of ed just lambasted their friends the privatizing company who tried to steal 2 schools by going to their charter loving, charter trained stooge the NY State Commissioner of Ed Jon King. They bypassed the Board and went straight to Daddy hoping he’d smile on them and hand over the schools. Of course he still will if ge can get away with it but for now the privatizers are nursing their wounds and trying to figure out where they can find some parents to go along with their scheme which they have been promoting since July but still don’t have one single parent to back their moves at either school. Pathetic.
And Parent Revolution is punishing the Adelanto community by dropping big bucks to place their backers on the board that had the chutzpah to deny a parent trigger:
http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles/happy-37654-parents-adelanto.html
Where reformers aren’t trying to snuff local boards, they’re taking them over.
Here’s what makes businessmen think school boards are bad: they result in demoschlerosis– a term Jonathan Rauch coined in the 1990s to describe the stultifying effect democracy has on “progress”. In New England where I work as a education consultant after serving as a superintendent for 14 years, local school boards struggle to make decisions about how to consolidate nearly-empty-outdated schools and how to balance their budgets given the human faces they see in the audience who would be affected if class sizes increase and/or jobs are eliminated. Corporations, on the other hand, make quick decisions about how to close down under-utilized outdated factories: they do it without any public input and outsource the work to right-to-work states or overseas. Corporations have no problem balancing the budget: they tell employees to forgo raises and/or benefits or face the elimination of their jobs. Businessmen who’ve served on school boards where I’ve worked are completely mystified at the public deliberations required to make a “simple business decision” like closing a facility and just as they are often mystified at the need for due process for employees and often mystified that we still provide health benefits and pensions, something the private sector eliminated years ago. If only we didn’t have this pesky democracy to deal with we could implement command capitalism and have the same economic growth as China!
When I was in social services (working with adults with developmental disorders), I had a client who was in the habit of liberating things from other people. My betters simply told me that he didn’t “understand the concept of ownership”. I replied, “then why don’t you try taking something of his? I think you’ll find him a quick learner.”
The point being, I’m sure everything you say is true about how these business types see everyone else (especially “those” people), but if there was to be a state or mayoral “take over” of their own schools, I’m pretty sure they’d figure out the benefits of that “pesky democracy” PDQ.
Businessmen and corporate types have a deep contempt for democracy and anyone not a member of their elite milieu. They refuse to evaluate the human results of their decisions as their own children will not need to endure excessive testing, large classes, mass firing of teachers, and capricious disruption of their school communities. Their children go to private schools.
Paul Vallas has never been hired by an elected Board to run their school system (although his consulting firm is getting some “turnaround” contracts via elected Boards, who have little choice when poverty = low test scores = sanctions = mandates to hire “turnaround” consultants).
We are finding out about “public” charter schools. No publicly elected board to oversee how public money is spent. Trying to build a new school on property on the opposite side of town from the student population. Trying to build on property owned by the board president’s former law partner (we think) on a two lane road. Trying to build in a district with two schools which outperform the state ( says students deserve choice). Board president also trying to take over five schools in three other parishes which are RSD schools which failed under state and “public” charter school control. Parishes don’t even neighbor ours, but I’m sure the property those schools sit on are worth a lot (New Orleans and Baton Rouge)