Archives for the month of: November, 2012
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Usdin Wins in New Orleans

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
3

Sarah Usdin won a school board seat in New Orleans, unfortunately.

She is a major advocate for privatization of public education.

Her background is Teach for America, the New Teacher Project (founded by Michelle Rhee), and New Schools for New Orleans (which opens charters).

She had the advantage of more than $110,000 in contributions from Wall Street hedge fund managers (“Democrats for Education Reform”), and others committed to wiping out public education in New Orleans and elsewhere.

Her campaign chest far exceeded that of her opponents, who included parent activist Karran Harper Royal.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, Klein, Joel, New Orleans, Privatization

Bill Ayers Writes a Letter to the President

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
11

I won’t go into the baggage associated with Bill Ayers. During the campaign of 2008, his name came up again and again and was hurled as an accusation against candidate Barack Obama.

I recall Sarah Palin saying that Obama was guilty of “palling around with terrorists,” or words to that effect.

I did not approve of or condone what he did in the 1960s.

Bill Ayers is not the same person he was forty years ago. Today, he is a respected education thinker. But then, none of us is the same person we were 40 or 20 or even 10 years ago.

People grow and change. If they are willing, they learn.

Ayers has written a letter to President Obama that expresses the views of many educators today.

He calls on the President to rethink his policies.

He reminds him of the great advantages that the University of Chicago Lab School offered to the Obama children, the Ayers children, the Duncan children, and the Rahm Emanuel children even now.

Isn’t this what we should want for all children?

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform, Duncan, Arne, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Obama, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, U.S. Department of Education, Unions, US Education, Vouchers

Charter Cash Loses in Santa Clara County

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
3

Charter school advocates and operators poured big money into Santa Clara County, California, to defeat Anna Song, a school board member who had dared to vote against a charter school.

Song was outspent overwhelmingly, by 25-1, yet she won.

This is a victory for parents and citizens against privatization.

A reader sends this update:

On a positive note, the huge investment in Santa Clara failed miserably. The Charter Industry spent something like $250k (against the incumbent’s $10k or so) to launch a smear campaign against a woman who voted against the renewal of one charter school. They even went after her husband. She still won in a landslide.

In another encouraging election here in Los Altos, CA, a charter-backed candidate who was the biggest single fund raiser also went down in flames. Part of her strategy was to hide the fact that she was associated with the charter school. Despite winning major endorsements including that of our local paper-of-record, she lost by a huge margin.

I think we need to be realistic on these elections: you can’t spend next to nothing and expect to defeat billionaire-backed campaigns. But the truth gives us huge leverage–10 to 1 in many cases.

Categories California, Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform

Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law Repealed

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
6

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder was rebuked by voters yesterday as they repealed the law that gave dictatorial powers to emergency managers appointed by the governor to control fiscally distressed districts.

Public Act 4 of 2011 was rejected by a vote of 52-48.

Snyder installed emergency managers to take control of public education in Detroit, Highland Park, and Muskegon Heights. The managers in the two small districts abolished public education and handed the students to for-profit charter chains to run. The Detroit emergency manager imposed a drastic plan to lay off teachers, privatize many schools, and increase class sizes.

The law enabled the governor to suspend democracy and impose one-man rule. It also allowed him to evade the state’s responsibility to provide public schools on every district in the state and to deal with fiscal crises with draconian measures.

Categories Accountability, ALEC, Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Detroit, Education Industry, For-Profit, Michigan, Privatization

Warning!! Washington State Ain’t Over Yet!

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
3

Hold off on popping the champagne corks, corporate reformers.

Voters in Washington State advise that the state is an all-mail-in state and many ballots have not yet been counted.

This from one reader:

It’s not over yet. There are still over 600,000 ballots to be counted and nearly 300,000 of those are from the two largest metropolitan areas. One of those counties is leaning no and the other is ever so slightly leaning yes. I’m still hopeful that the balance will change. Oh, and in WA, it’s not terribly uncommon for the voters to pass an initiative and for the courts to overturn it. Our I-1185 is definitely going to pass like several times before, but the courts keep determining the basic concept of the initiative illegal. I am hopeful that if the charter school initiative does pass, that the courts will determine that it violates the McCleary order to fully fund public education. I’m sure the lawsuit it waiting in the wings to be filed as soon as the election results are finally in.

And from another reader:

Not quite yet! Washington is an all mail-in state and the results are close enough that we really won’t know for sure until at least tonight, possibly later. King County (the most populous county in the state) is only about half counted, and “No” is leading there.

I am realistic but still a little bit hopeful, it’s not time for the wake just yet.

So, suspend the Bill Gates Challenge. Let’s wait for all the votes to be counted.

 

Categories Charter Schools, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Washington State

The Bill Gates Challenge

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
9

Now that Bill Gates and his billionaire buddies have managed to buy a law authorizing charter schools in Washington State, over the objection of virtually every education-related group in the state, almost every parent association, local school boards, superintendents, principals teachers, and the League of Women Voters, it is time for him to show his real faith in charters.

Bill, put your children in the first charter school to open in Washington State.

Show that you really believe in them.

Demonstrate your sincerity.

Not for other people’s children, but for yours too.

Bill, you know there is no evidence for the superiority of charters over public schools.

You know there is evidence that they are more racially segregated than public schools.

Why did you overwhelm parents, citizens and teachers with more than $10 million in campaign spending, outspending them 10 or 20 to 1?

Why was it so important to you to open 40 charter schools in your state?

Bill, prove your sincerity.

Make your own children the first entrants into the first charter school in Seattle.

Categories Education Reform

Billionaires Buy Charter Law in Washington State–but Just Barely

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
12

Bill Gates, Alice Walton, the Bezos family (of amazon.com) and a handful of other billionaires poured more than $10 million into a charter referendum in Washington State and won, but just barely.

For their investment, the state gets 40 charter schools over the next five years. Watch for new legislation and more millions to lift the cap.

Watch charter schools drain resources from public schools.

Watch the privatization movement pick up steam as Gates and Walton use their richest to persuade voters to abandon public schools for privately managed schools.

These are the latest results:

Categories Charter Schools, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Parent trigger, Privatization, Walton Foundation

Luna Laws in Idaho Go Down to Stunning Defeat

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
4

Voters in Idaho gave Mitt Romney a landslide  but simultaneously voted overwhelmingly to repeal the “Luna Laws,” the brainchild of state superintendent Tom Luna.

This stunning victory for public education demonstrates that not even red-state Republicans are prepared to privatize public education and dismantle the teaching profession.

The Luna Laws imposed a mandate for online courses for high school graduates (a favorite of candidates funded by technology companies), made test scores the measure of teacher quality, provided bonuses for teachers whose students got higher scores, removed all teacher rights, eliminated anything resembling tenure or seniority, turned teachers into at-will employees, and squashed the teachers’ unions.

The campaign to support the Luna laws was heavily funded by technology entrepreneurs and out-of-state supporters of high-stakes testing and restrictions on the teaching profession, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The voters in this reddest of red states overturned all three of the Luna laws (which he called “Students Come First”; anything in which children or students or kids come “first” is a clear tip-off to the divisive intent of the program).

As the story in the Idaho Statesman reported:

In a stunning rebuke to Gov. Butch Otter and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna, Idahoans on Tuesday repealed the laws that dominated the pair’s agenda the past two years.

Idahoans agreed with teachers unions — which spent more than $3 million to defeat Propositions 1, 2 and 3 — that the reforms Luna called “Students Come First” and detractors called “The Luna Laws” went too far.

As GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney won a 65 percent Idaho landslide, Otter and Luna — both touted as possible Cabinet secretaries in a Romney administration — lost their signature issue by large margins.

With 99 percent of all Idaho precincts reporting:

— 57 percent opposed to restrictions on teachers unions in Prop 1.

— 58 percent voted no on Prop 2, which paid teacher bonuses based on student test scores and other measures.

— 67 percent rejected a mandate for laptops and online credits for every Idaho high school student.

The scale of the defeat reached across Idaho.

Voters in 37 of 44 counties rejected all three measures. The seven outliers — Adams, Boise, Fremont, Jefferson, Lemhi, Madison and Owyhee — are largely rural. Not one of Idaho’s most populous counties voted for even one of the laws.

Categories Administrators, superintendents, Bloomberg, Michael, Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Idaho, On-Line Education, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Technology, Computers, Testing, Unions

The Most Important Education Vote Yesterday

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
17

The most important education vote yesterday occurred in Indiana.

As the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette pointed out in its editorial, this election has national implications.

Tony Bennett had become the face of rightwing reform in America.

His mission was to bring the ALEC agenda to life in the Hoosier State.

He was head of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change, the group of state superintendents that were most eager to privatize public education, expand charters and vouchers, turn children over to for-profit corporations, and reduce the status of teachers.

He was honored by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute as the “reformiest” state superintendent in the nation.

The Wall Street hedge fund managers and assorted billionaires pumped $1.5 million into his campaign for re-election.

He was soundly defeated by veteran teacher Glenda Ritz.

Ritz raised $325,000 for her campaign to restore public education in Indiana.

Ritz won over Bennett by a comfortable margin of 53-47.

She got 1.3 million votes, almost 100,000 more votes than Mike Pence, the Republican running for governor, who barely eked out a victory.

Make no mistake: The people of Indiana said “no” to Tony Bennett’s radical plans to turn public education into a free-market of choice and competition, based on high-stakes testing.

The people of Indiana elected Glenda Ritz to rebuild their public school system and to wipe away the misguided, mean-spirited “reforms” imposed by Bennett.

This is a victory for the parents, citizens and educators of Indiana.

Most important, it is a victory for the children of the state of Indiana.

Now, they will have a chance to have a good education, not to be consumers in a vast shopping mall of test-based choices, not to be data points for corporations bent on turning a profit.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, ALEC, Bush, Jeb, Charter Schools, Chiefs for Change, Democrats for Education Reform, Education Industry, Education Reform, For-Profit, Indiana, Privatization, Vouchers

Teacher: Stop the Scripting!

By dianeravitch
November 7, 2012 //
9

A frustrated teacher writes:

I am in my 21st year of teaching and have been close to quitting every year for the last six years. The pressures to conform and follow a script even when I know it’s bad for kids have been really, really stressful. I am a creative teacher, and I feel like I’m fighting for the right to work 3 times harder than I have to. We now have teachers who are “script followers” telling those of us who aren’t standardized that we are sub-par because we actually plan our lessons rather than doling out prefabricated workbook pages. I haven’t quit yet because I’m not sure what else I would do– teaching is truly a calling for me. I also have a great, supportive principal who gives me the autonomy I need to get the job done– which I do with most kids. As for the shortage– our small department has been going through first-year teachers like crazy– one per year lately. Here’s what I’d like: a little respect, a huge hunk of autonomy, and the ability to openly discuss what the real issues are. As you said in your book Diane, how can we expect teachers to teach kids to think for themselves if teachers are not allowed to think for themselves. I’m staying as long as I have my current principal. After that… who knows?

Categories Teachers and Teaching
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