2012 was a year in which supporters of public education–parents, educators and concerned citizens–won some huge victories against the privatization movement.
Let’s begin with the elections of 2012.
Reform idol Tony Bennett was booted out by the voters of Indiana, who elected veteran educator Glenda Ritz as State Superintendent of Education.
Idaho was a great victory for supporters of public education. Idaho voters decisively repealed the Luna laws, which would have committed the state to spend $180 million for laptops while imposing merit pay, crushing the unions and tying every educators’ evaluation to test scores.
Voters in Florida rejected an effort to amend the state constitution to permit vouchers.
Voters in Bridgeport, Connecticut, voted against the mayor’s effort to take control of their public schools by eliminating the elected board of education.
Voters in Santa Clara County, California, re-elected Anna Song, whose opponent outspent her by about 25-1. She was targeted for defeat by the California charter school lobby after she opposed a bid by Rocketship to open 20 new charters. Rocketship will get the charters but Anna Song proved that big money was not enough to beat a supporter of public education.
The big push for “parent trigger” laws ran into two stumbling blocks:
In Florida, Jeb Bush and Michelle Rhee put on a full-court press to persuade the state legislature to pass a law allowing parents to vote to hand their public school over to a charter operator. But they overlooked the parents of Florida! Every Florida parent group turned out in Tallahassee to oppose the “Parent Empowerment” bill. In reformese, when they talk “parent empowerment,” that means parents are about to lose their voice and their local neighborhood school. Florida PTAs, Fund Florida Now, Testing Is Not Teaching, 50th No More, and every other grassroots group spoke out against the “parent trigger.” A bloc of Republican state senators turned against the bill, and the bill died in the state senate on a tie vote of 20-20. It will be back this year, but so will Florida’s parents.
The billionaire libertarian Philip Anschutz, in league with billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, released a film called “Won’t Back Down,” that was intended to teach the American public that the only way to save their children was to hand their public school over to a charter operator. The film was heavily promoted at NBC’s “Education Nation,” on the Ellen show, and at a “Teachers Rock” concert sponsored by CBS. Michelle Rhee sponsored free showings at both national political conventions, so that every Democrat and Republican could have a chance to see how important it is to turn public schools over to private management, whether for-profit or non-profit. But then Parents Across America sprung into action. They put out a fact sheet about who and what was behind the movie. A few of them actually demonstrated at the Democratic National Convention. When the film was released in late September, it was pegged as anti-teacher and anti-public education and anti-union. It got terrible reviews. It didn’t sell many tickets. It flopped. Within a month after its grand premiere, it had disappeared. The free market is not kind to idlers, even when the guy who produced the movie is one of the biggest theater owners in the nation.
The movement against high-stakes testing roared into high gear:
More than 80% of the local school boards in Texas passed resolutions opposing high-stakes testing. Prominent Texans like state board member Tom Ratliff spoke out against the misuse of tests.
Superintendent Joshua Starr of Montgomery County, Maryland, called for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing. He said that the schools were inundated with too many changes at the same time.
Superintendent Heath Morrison of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, said that the national obsession with high-stakes testing had to stop. He said, “we can teach to the top, but we can’t test to the top.” Last spring, Morrison was chosen as Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators.
Superintendent John Kuhn of the Perrin-Whitt Independent School District in Texas continues to be an eloquent spokesman for children.
The voucher program in Louisiana became an international embarrassment and its funding was declared unconstitutional:
Earlier this year, Governor Bobby Jindal pushed through sweeping voucher legislation for Louisiana that would give vouchers for more than half the children in the state to attend private and religious schools with money taken from the public school budget. Because several of the voucher schools are religious schools that teach creationism, the Louisiana plan was mocked by media around the world, who laughed at the idea that children would be taught that men and dinosaurs co-existed and that the Loch Ness monster is real, and other nonsense. Just weeks ago, a Louisiana judge struck down the funding of the vouchers, because the state constitution says the money is dedicated to elementary and secondary public schools. The language is clear. The state may not raid the public school’s minimum foundation budget to pay for vouchers.
Oh, and the anti-voucher vote in Florida continued a longstanding tradition: No state has ever voted to approve vouchers.
Local school boards continue to support their public schools with vigilance:
In addition to the many local school boards in Texas and elsewhere that have passed high-stakes testing resolutions, school boards have fought off other intrusions.
In North Carolina, the school boards won a battle to keep the for-profit virtual charter corporation K12 Inc. out of their state.
The Austin Independent School Board, after an election that brought in new members representing the community, severed its contract with the IDEA charter chain.
In Nashville, the Metro Nashville school board turned down Great Hearts Academy four times because Great Hearts wanted to locate their charter in a mainly white neighborhood and had inadequate plans for diversity. The board stood firm despite the fulminations of the governor, the legislature, and the state commissioner of education, who are so determined to open the way for Great Hearts that 1) Commissioner Kevin Huffman withheld $3.4 million of public funds from the children of Nashville to punish the school board for its refusal to follow his orders; and 2) the legislature plans to authorize a state commission to override the local school boards’ wishes. This accords with ALEC legislation.
Bad news for ALEC:
For years, ALEC has been under the radar. The shooting of Trayvon Martin in Florida made the public aware of ALEC’s “Stand Your Ground” legislation, invoked by the man who killed the teen. Then the media starting paying attention to ALEC and discovered its agenda of privatization (see ALEC Exposed) and learned about the model laws written by ALEC for charter schools, vouchers, online charter schools, union-busting, uncertified teachers, and an array of other corporate-friendly legislation.
The Chicago Teachers Union went on strike and said, “Enough is enough!”
Teachers have watched in dismay as state after state has whittled away or hacked away their right to bargain collectively, their tenure rights, their academic freedom, and their pensions. They have seen state after state pass legislation requiring merit pay (even though it has never worked anywhere) and tying their evaluations and their careers to student test scores (even though research says that value-added assessment is inaccurate and unstable and punishes teachers who teach children with high needs).
Teachers and principals alike have watched in dismay as rightwing legislatures and governors have slashed spending for public schools while paying more for testing.
Educators have been appalled by cuts in basic services to students.
And the CTU said, “No more.”
CTU was not allowed to strike about anything that mattered, but they made clear in their words and deeds that they were striking for their students. They were striking to protest the lack of teachers of the arts, of librarians and social workers, and of basic resources for students. They were protesting overcrowded classes. They were protesting school closings.
CTU had the support of parents of Chicago’s students. They had the support of police and firefighters.
The national media never understood what was at stake, but almost every educator in America did.
And to educators, CTU were heroes. Every educator wished they too had one of those cool red CTU tee-shirts.
2012 was the beginning.
Teachers, principals, superintendents, local and state school boards are speaking up.
Parents and students are speaking up.
The friends of public education dominate social media.
We dominate Twitter and Facebook because we have millions of supporters.
The corporate reformers have millions to buy TV ads and to buy media outlets.
But they don’t own us.
And they are failing. Everything they advocate is failing.
That is why we are winning.
2012 is the beginning.
We will take back public education for the public, not for profit, not for private interests.
For the public.
Pro publica.
It makes me feel a little guilty for feeling good about these failures-but I do feel good. This is an issue that needs even more public exposure than brief spots/interviews on news programs.
Thanks for the summary….things are certainly looking better….the tide is turning. I liked Maureen’s idea of a master calendar of events and I am looking forward to the April 4-7 United Opt Out Occupy DOE event. Diane, thank you for creating a place for us to become informed, share stories and spread hope. What would we do without you?
Very interesting summary especially on the failure of the ‘won’t come back’ film. It boosts the moral of public school teachers all over the world.
I hope enough concerned citizens, parents, and educators advocate in 2013 for us to make more gains against privatization. We need to get rid of the testing programs we are forced to have, the CCSS, & Value Added Assessment Measures. I am looking forward to United Opt Out’s April event and hope many people will be there.
While I agree that all the things Diane cites were good things, I still do not feel as if we are “winning” – not yet, not with a Democratic administration in Washington that continues along the same path it has followed for four years, not with too many Representatives and Senators willing to go along, not when the Federal dollars are still driving policy, not when Eli Broad and Bill Gates still have more influence on what happens in our school policy than do the collective insights of more than 3 million teachers. I see possibilities of improvement, but I continue worry about the ongoing damage, about the dedicated teachers who could have stayed in the classroom and walked way. I know, I was one of them, having taken a buyout. At least temporarily I am back in a classroom, in a high-needs middle school, filling a vacancy for some friends until the end of the year. Since I am in DC I am seeing the impact of the mandates on testing that Joshua Starr says rightly we should suspend. And yet he cannot suspend them in his own district because Maryland signed on to Race to the Top and thus he is subject to state-imposed mandates.
I hope this year will be different, will be better. I can hope, but I that does not make me hopefuly.
One more thought – there are many groups hat pushing back against the deform agenda. But unless and until we can organize those groups to push politically, so that there is a political consequence for elected officials who support that distorted agenda that will outweigh the political contributions they receive from its advocates, we cannot change the course. We also need for media to fairly present – unlike NBC which is totally in the deform camp. I still do not see that happening.
It’s on the verge of happening everywhere. We’re in a supersaturated solution of political possibilities.
We need to drop in a seed crystal.
Dianne,
Thank you for your insightful blog on issues that impact us ALL over this coutnry! I spend time reading your blog along with other blogger whose ideoligical differences differ greatly from you and your most loyal supporters. I purposely read different blogs to attempt to gather all the facts and make an informed decision on how these views affect my truth. As I look at these issues, I spend a lot of time asking students about these issues, attempting to listen without my students knowing my views or beliefs. Here is what a lot of poor inner city students tell me year after year after year. Asking these questions matter because many education decisions are made on a group or self interest and we hardly ever ask kids. That is why I love the 6th graders piece so much.
1) Traditional School does not work for them. It is too boring and they feel like everything is in “slow motion.”
2) They connect with the people in their building who, “keep it real.” and show a sense of not beign afraid of them.
3) They connect with people that live in their neighborhood. Some students even resent when staff leave them in a community that is not ok, especially at night and on the weekends.
4) Most know they are not “good” at math, reading and writing and hate going to class. They feel lost in a class that the work they do is too academically advance with their skill level. They feel they can do it but they need extra help, like another person in the classroom.
5) They like to celebrate their acheivements especially when it is connected to their life. They believe that if everyone is making money on them they should spend money on ways that directly impact them.
These students do not know the battles being fought in the name of common core, standandarized test, charter schools and teacher evaluation. If whatever side so called “won” these battles, would my students life be better? Or would the losers still be our student. If the answer is yes, then sign me up. And by the way, I do not believe privatizing ,charters, more testing or teacher evaluation rating systems is the answer. Just keeping it real!
Dr. Ravitch, I nominate you and this blog for a “Best of 2012” award. It is such an important forum for sharing ideas, speaking out, organizing, and just expressing care for and solidarity with each other.
I hope this snowball continues to grow! I am much more optomistic about the future of public education than I was a year ago.
Yesterday was my last day on the Board of Education of a large metropolitan district in Indianapolis. In my tenure, I never met a Board member of any district who supported Tony Bennett’s privatization agenda, not even the conservatives. We all fought everyday for our students and our educators and when the voters sent Bennett packing and put a real educator back in the office I knew, we knew, that our efforts had made a difference. I knew that I had left my district in better shape than when I took office. I am also comfortable that my successor understands that the fight is not over and that we must all be just as active, if not more so. The privatization ideology, the idea that we don’t need professional educators is absurd, but it needs to be continually discredited, denigrated, and laughed at every opportunity. We are winning right now but ignorance is a carcinogen and corporate greed in education is a cancer. We must never stop fighting these people who would tear down one of Americas great equalizers for their own financial gain or worse, as is often the result with Charters, to re-segregate our schools. Enjoy today; we have earned it. But we had better all be fighting again tomorrow.
Parents are the answer! Have to educate and inform so they are aware of what is at stake. PTA’s, School Board meetings, etc. Grassroots.
I agree. Parents are the answer. They need to understand that what is called “reform” is a means of ruining their children’s education. Students must become active. Parents must become active. The public must become informed.
Diane,
I don’t remember where if found this. Here is the closing.
All teachers and parents should read this article titled: Lean production: what’s really hurting public education.
The goal of lean education isn’t teaching or learning; it’s creating lean workplaces where teachers are stretched to their limits so that students can receive the minimum support necessary to produce satisfactory test scores. It is critical for teachers to see this clearly because lean production is indeed “continuous”: in other words, it’s insatiable. The harder teachers work to satisfy the demands of lean managers, the harder we will be pushed, until we break down. There is no end to this process.
It is equally critical for parents to understand that their children are being subjected to school reforms that are in fact experiments in educational deprivation. The goal of business-minded reformers is not to create “better” schools for children. It’s to create leaner schools for administrators to manage with greater ease. Parents and teachers must fight this process together, or student learning in public schools will continue to suffer.
http://jacobinmag.com/2012/09/lean-production-whats-really-hurting-public-education/
Did you read about it here?
Yes, I found it on my saved reading list and couldn’t remember. All roads lead back to you! I just sent to many teachers. We are being spread so thin. I just can’t do it anymore. So excited about your book. I wonder how early we can pre-order?
Yes, indeed. In Idaho we educators were in close communication with parents and the public and it was like David defeating Goliath because Frank Vandersloot, Michael Bloomberg, Jeb Bush, and all those promoters with big bucks were campaigning assiduously. I’m now inspired that we CAN change things to improve education for children beyond the state of Idaho. Thanks, Diane!
In Seattle, our I-Love-Bill-Gate$ school board chair (Michael DeBell) was replaced by someone not consistently in his camp. The 3 member exec committee (of 7 members) is no longer a clique of downtown insider deformer toadies.
Also, in replacing our superintendent the deformers choice was not hired.
rmm.
We have exposed many “deformed” areas to fellow educators and the public, and there are many. The billionaires have taken a strong foothold on Education, which will be very difficult to break. As many of you have mentioned, we need to get organized and counter-attack these corporate mongers. I believe we should start with one (such as Broad) and concentrate our efforts to expose and defeat them, one at a time.
This blog has indeed been one of the best things to develop in 2012. And not just for the writing and thinking and investigation Diane has shared with us. Also for the tremendous community of readers that have come to check in here on a frequent basis, and the way Diane has raised the profile of so many local issues, so that we can clearly see the interconnectedness of the closing of a local school in Chicago with the fight over vouchers in Louisiana. We have all become a lot smarter about what is going on.
But as teacherken observed, though we had some important victories, we are not really “winning” yet. We need to take another big step forward. We need to picture in our minds the thousands of people around the nation reading this blog, and what would happen if we began to act together, in a coordinated way. What if we actually did what some of the astroturf groups like StudentsFirst have pretended to do? What if we raised money to support candidates willing to take strong stands for public education? What if we mobilized educators, parents and students willing to do phone banks and walk precincts for candidates? What if we let these activists know we have their backs and will actively support them in taking on those that threaten our public schools? Now THAT would be something to celebrate!
I’m in. Vamonos!
Great post, Dr. Ravitch. ‘So grateful for this blog. 2013 will be a turnaround year!
All very encouraging. Next step in Los Angeles Unified is to re-elect Steve Zimmer, who is opposed and out-funded 10 to 1 by a pro-charter candidate. (Who is providing her funds?)
Robin, I noticed her first fundraiser was hosted by Davis Guggenheim and she is linked to Parent Revolution. She also appears to be a well connected Democrat.
We are hearing that John White will be leaving Louisiana soon. We’re just hoping he will take all the tfa’ers he has placed in the DOE with him. We also want to get rid of Jindal, but we don’t wish him on the nation! Please pay attention and fight against his campaign for the presidency! He is among the worst.
Thanks for your excellent blog and for all your talented followers who expand, enhance, and explain to me every day.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
Diane, are you sure Heath Morrison, a Broad Superintendent Academy graduate, is president of AASA? There is no information stating that and somebody else was named president back in April.
What Morrison DID do was buy himself an AASA award for national superintendent of the year thanks to his cooking the graduation rate numbers when he was superintendent of Washoe County School District in Nevada:
http://www.nevadalabor.com/barbwire/barb12/barb4-22-12.html
As soon as Morrison bought himself the national award, he immediately jumped ship to work for Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools.
You are right that Heath Morrison was named Superintendent of the Year. I will fix that.
I admire his strong statement against high-stakes testing, and the fact that he was willing to go out front against educational malpractice. I met Heath at an AASA meeting last June, and he told me that not all graduates of the Broad Academy think alike. It is a good caution for us all.
He made unfounded claims in order to boost his career. Not such a good idea.
Austin ISD cancelled their contract with the IDEA charter schools. That was a highlight for 2012.
I added Austin’s news too!
Thanks for this blog, Diane. It has given us a place to unite. The majority of parents, citizens and educators support our public schools and that’s why I believe we’ll come out on top. The most important goal right now should be dissemination of information because as I’ve said before, the general public likely has no idea that there is an attempt to privatize their schools and siphon tax money into private pockets.
We need to educate the public about the following:
Public schools, which belong to the American people, are being privatized by entrepreneurs. Laws allowing this to happen were enacted while citizens were focused on the economy.
Teachers are not against being evaluated, which is controlled by state laws anyway. They are against being UNFAIRLY evaluated by standardized tests that are often neither reliable nor valid;
Many schools are being turned into test prep academies, to the detriment of (mostly poor) students, but to the advantage of the testing industry. Many of these tests are invalid.
Teachers have due process like all other public sector employees. They don’t have true “tenure” or “a job for life.” They can be dismissed for poor performance, but they are protected against unfair labor practices in the same way that police and firefighters are.
Charter schools were started to allow educators and parents to try new ideas. They were not started to allow privatizers to take them over to make profits off of tax money.
Many charter operators award themselves huge salaries while giving their teachers minimal salaries.
There is much fraud and graft in the educational “reform” movement. The whole movement is based on “lies, damned lies and statistics.”
The education of a child is a joint effort by parents, school and community. When one of these is weak, the child often fails to thrive academically.
American children, not in poverty, get an education that is equal or superior to any in the advanced world.
The emotional, social and physical health of a child is critical to his academic achievement.
Etc.
Once the American public becomes aware of what is happening, we’ll see a turnaround and a strong backlash.
You are exactly right.
Thank you for the line up. But again I would like to add the Hawaii teachers who are standing up against their governor with their weekly protests. This is a grassroots movement which makes it more special. It started with a group of teachers at one school in early November and has grown to over 100 schools around the state. A rally in Honolulu is scheduled for mid January.
Hawaii teachers are the lowest paid in the nation. Many are leaving the profession because they can’t afford to live on their salary. On top of that, the governor implemented a 5% pay cut. While they haven’t gotten any results in their negotiations, they are getting support from parents. Teachers need to be valued, but they are not.
This was not a union action which proves teachers in right-to-work states as well as those with unions can also take a stand. This movement is growing faster than Karen Lewis’ CORE, and I hope the NY teachers from MORE look closely at these results.
Any movement that brings teachers together is worth an honorable mention.
Diane you could make a 5-7 minute inservice video that could be shown to every PTA and school board meeting nationwide!!!!! 🙂
Wow, great idea!
Or we could get CNN to release segments of the Ravitch/Kaye smack down or maybe a video expert could do it for free!
OMG!! I had forgotten about that smack down!! That should be included in “The Best of 2012”. That was right up there with Matt Damon’s smack down of that reformer reporter at the 2011 SOS Save Our Schools rally 🙂
Great idea!
Wonderful! Keeps hope alive. Thanks.
Michael Moore!
Yes, where is he on this?
Diane,
Will teachers be marching again in Washington DC this year as they did in 2011? I thought I read it somewhere and can not recall where. I searched the Save Our Schools site and could not find it…If teachers are gathering , I do NOT want to miss it this time. It has NEVER been more important. Would you direct me to the website?…please.
OCCUPY THE DEPT. OF ED. IN D.C. APRIL 4-7
Posted on December 24, 2012
See here..it says Diane will be attending and hopefully speaking:
This week please share this brief update on Occupy DOE 2.0, The Battle for Public Schools, April 4-7, 2013. We return to DC this year and will occupy the Dept. of Ed. for four days. Our schedule is filling quickly. Here is a sneak peek of what we currently have confirmed, followed by information on hotels, free sleeping arrangements and a few additional details . Please click on each name to learn more – we will have a full schedule soon which will include a full bio on each group or individual.
For some reason the link won’t post…just google Occupy DOE 2.0 the battle for public schools.
There will be an action in DC from April 4-7 called Occupy the DOE. I will be there. I will write more about it in the coming days and weeks.
Thank You….off to Google now!
I wanted to stand and cheer and clap after reading this. We will win. True education reform is coming, and those who are pro-prioritization better stand out of the way!!
Aloha! Hau’oli Makahiki Hou — 2013! Thanks for a terrific blog, Diane! As well as being an Inspiration! Remember… you’re always welcome to come visit, speak, stay with us in Hawai’i ! What started out as a one-school grass-roots Hawaii-Teachers-Work-To-The-Rules Protest in mid-November grew to a every-Thursday Statewide-effort involving nearly 100 schools by mid-December… and though we resisted the (tremendous!) temptation to rally/protest/bring-national-attention-to-our-woes during President Obama’s Christmastime-visit (out of repect for his precious Family’s privacy), the movement is already gearing up again in earnest! Keep your eyes peeled for news of the enormous Statewide Rally for Teachers (and their myriad Supporters!) planned for Thursday, January 17th at the Hawai’i State Legislature…. or…. hmmm… better yet? Come Join Us! https://www.facebook.com/CampbellWorkTheRulesProtest
Wonderful post … wonderful year … wonderful advocates … wonderful you. Thank you, Diane. Happy New Year … Onward 2013! Pro Publica !
Wow. Amazing blog…amazing Diane….amazing comments. This blog settles my soul. I’m so thankful for you, Diane, and, I continue to be so impressed with many of the readers who comment here. I look forward to reading more of your blog and tweets! Happy 2013!
@TeacherReality on Twitter
I can only think of my Grandmother saying, “From your mouth to
God’s ears.” May this indeed be a year of results that work for public education and for our students and our nation.
How sad that there continues to be no good news coming from New York State. We are gutless.
Take heart–Carol Burris has an anti-testing petition out. Carol, could you put up a link in this blog?
Diane,
I would like to add a little history to your ALEC comments. I would say that many of us became aware of ALEC during Wisconsin teachers’ fight with Gov. Scott Walker, who won with heavy support from ALEC and the Koch brothers independently. Wisconsin teachers were martyrs for the cause Chicago won. They should not be forgotten. I hope next year they can get their state to remember its progressive history and get rid of Walker and reinstate collective bargaining for state employees.