Here is EduShyster’s definition:
“Eduttante: /ˌedjuˈtänt/
A shill or paid spokesperson advocating strict no-excuses charters for the urban communities in which he or she does not live. Related terms: educolonialist, whiteousness.”
The eduttante raves about the virtues of a strict, military-style school for “other people’s children.”
He or she would never send one’s own child to such a rigid, punitive school.
EduShyster points out that the leading advocate of lifting the cap on charters sends his own child to a private school where there is no standardized testing.
Be sure to read the comment at the end of her post.
PS: Thanks to readers for pointing out that (once again) I forgot the link. Thanks to Jeff Bryant for supplying it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here’s the link to EduShysters post:
http://edushyster.com/?p=2031
Thanks, Jeff. I just asked EduShyster how she felt about Boston Latin & other “public” schools that use admissions tests. I’m opposed to them. I also asked EdShyster if she has been an urban public school teacher or administrator & if she/he has been a parent. If yes, where did her/his children attended school. As some readers, know, our 3 children attended urban public schools, k-12. They attended schools with no admissions tests. I was a PTA president.
I have taught in a school just like the “no excuses” charter. It is a huge money maker for the CEO. It’s ridiculous rules keep children out of the classroom learning environment due to petty rules that are broken. (A student sits in the entrance area for hours waiting to be picked up by parent because they forgot a belt or are wearing the wrong shoes.) (They get suspended for days for having a cell phone.) The suspensions are so high that students spend far less time with instruction and learning) The curriculum is extremely narrow and the environment restricts the development of the individual. I would never let my child get near a school like this. I sent my children to great public schools that have a wide curriculum and promote the development of the individual and freedom. I’ll never understand how these schools were promoted to urban children. They are doing nothing to advance education in this country. I’m sorry Joe, I really think you are wrong if you think this type of school is adequate for children. Why are you a fan?
DeeDee, when you’ve seen one charter, or one district school, you’ve seen one. Both district & charters vary widely…there are progressive, Core Knowledge, Spanish, French, German immersion, etc etc.
DeeDee, I am glad you had an option. I think other families should have options too. Why did you select the schools you did for your children? Why do you think families selected the school at which you taught (and do you still teach there)?
I chose to move to an area where I knew people supported public education. I made sure it was an area where the schools would be supported and respected. I’ve worked in two charters. The first one served drop-outs and was a complete rip-off. The other charter is in a poor area where most of the regular public schools have been closed. By junior yr half of the student body is gone. (I couldn’t believe either of these schools were legal.) I’m opposed to charters in their current form. They’ve been used as a vehicle to make money rather than educate children.
Joe, how much money do the teachers make at your school make in one year? And how much money do the executives, both within your school, and outside of your school, make in one year? Thanks.
Hi Puget Sound Parent, I don’t run a school. I run a 3 person organization that works with district & charter public schools, parent & community groups, state legislators and other policy-makers.
http://www.centerforschoolchange.org
I also write a weekly newspaper column that describes outstanding work in district and charter public schools.
http://www.hometownsource.com
I helped write a law in Minnesota that has some similarity to the “Running Start” legislation in Washington State.
Very funny. The “no excuses” schools are horrible. I think it is sad that they are touted as some type of great opportunity for children. They totally restrict the development of an individual, particularly at the high school level. The academics are narrow too.
Read this:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/02/michigan-tea-partier-charter-schools-ethnically-challenged-families
Why has Obama promoted Charter schools?
Having visited some KIPP and YES PREP high schools, I found them places where the arts are promoted, along with academics.
I hope so. I really believe in those areas of education. Children should be able to explore all aspects of education.
Love the “educolonialist” moniker, eduracist can be applied as well since it appears most of these “paramilitary” style schools are opened in neighborhoods of color and lower income status.
This is the country club set decreeing how those folks on the other side of the tracks need to be “schooled”.
How is it the anyone is “decreeing” how low income families need to “be schooled.” Is anyone forced to attend?
Our kids attended an urban district that wisely offered a variety of options including Core Knowledge, “multiple- intelligence based on Howard Gardner’s ideas, Montessori, French Immersion, Spanish immersion, “open” etc. This is ST. Paul, Minnesota
I’d wish every family have a range of options (and every educator )have the opportunity for something similar.
Infractions look similar to Success Academy’s. My friend removed her son from SA after a month or so of attendance. SA made the child anxious & miserable. The child is doing well in traditional public school.
Can anyone stop Eva Moskowitz? Who are the fools who keep letting her open schools?
Sheila, sorry that the school did not work for your friend’s youngster. One of the beautifies of public school choice is that families can select schools that work for our their youngsters.
What choice do you have when they close all the public schools and now your only choice is a charter chain? Is that choice? Or is choice now come down to the students they want to have in their school? So it’s their choice, not yours.
The word reform has been hijacked and now the word choice.
Why don’t you at least acknowledge these problems?
You are quite quick to bash public schools and defend “choice”.
I don’t need your background again.
True. Some parents might want their children penalized for wearing a dark navy & black sock. Some parents may want their school administration lying to them.
Some parents may want their children to stand on a designated marker on the floor. That will put them in their position, right? Some parents may want measures like those to be used to teach a child who’s in control. Doesn’t sound to me like humane learning.
Is it choice if you only have one to choose from and they get to decide if they want you or don’t want you. Reform, choice, standards….all double speak which is meaningless these days.
Haven’t talked with parents who you describe. Have talked with parents
* Who love the idea that their (suburban) or (urban) children will go to school together in downtown St. Paul, learning together about drama and dancing
* Who like the idea of a Montessori junior-senior high school
* Who love their elementary children learning Chinese or German
* Who are delighted to be in a school where their children are encouraged to believe that they can go to college, and who walk into a building daily with pictures on the wall of youngsters on the wall from their neighborhood who have entered and graduated from college
* Who are pleased that there are a number of people in the building who can speak their language fluently (be in Spanish, Hmong or Somali)
Those are some of th reasons that some families have given for selecting charters. I also respect a variety of reasons that families give for selecting various district public schools.
Good word for the situation. We need definations to speak correctly and clearly.
Since we’re doing vocabulary, here’s my current favorite: cronypreneur.
A cronypreneur is somebody who has the enthusiasm and to some extent the wile and cunning of a real entrepreneur, but with no moral compass and no interest in building a useful product.
This creature spends their days and nights trying to figure out how to separate taxpayers and philanthropists from their money. Their skills include shmoozing, manipulating, lying, nepotizing, marrying power, speaking in buzzwords and doing anything else that looks great in a press release without regard to actual content and results.
You’ll find cronypreneurs hanging around politicians, billionaires and anybody else they can convince to give them money. You’ll see them burning the midnight oil trying to figure out how to make their numbers look better.
Occasionally a real entrepreneur will be caught in the tuna net of cronypreneurs but the real ones will return to the real world quickly.
The education-industrial complex (aka Charter schools) is run almost exclusively by cronypreneurs.
Just as a matter of fact, Joan, 2/3 of the nation’s charter public schools are independent, not associated with an education or charter management group.
But as I’ve pointed out there also are great district public schools.
Those deeply committed to students and their families, whether in district or charter, need to work together to help deal with this kind of thing:
Neither the district, nor the elite “magnet” nor the charters are doing enough when we have too many students having to take remedial courses on entering places like CUNY.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-most-nyc-high-school-grads-need-remedial-help-before-entering-cuny-community-colleges/
The more we narrow the curriculum to meet the expectations of the state tests and with the increased pressure to raise test scores, which will be tied to teacher evaluations and employment, the less prepared students will be for their future.
Traveling “reformers” and Commissioners who once dabbled in education are putting more pressure on to improve graduation rates and pass kids. Credit recovery courses are a joke. Try and try again if at first you don’t succeed has become guess, guess again until you pick the write answer. Grades are adjusted by those in suits without teachers knowing. This all looks good on paper to please the non-educator leaders (many TFA dropouts with connections to the wealthy…many roads lead back to Bloomberg).
So, Joe, if you are worried about students needing remedial help after graduation,the RTT stimulus package for edupreneurs/cronies orchestrated by the Gates USDOE, will not make the situation any better. It will be worse. I just thought you should know.
I don’t believe 2/3 are independent. I’m sure it varies state to state. Mich. has 80% for profits in America.
Yes, it does vary state to state. National research shows 2/3 are independent. Glad you were able to find a community and schools that work well for your children.
By the way Joan, I love it!
We are crawling with them here in CT…..too many wealthy hedge fund managers feigning concern for the poor brown child while salivating at the potential stream of $$$ and political payback.
May I use it?
It’s a perfect name and description.
And beside the dictionary entry, one will find a picture of….
Bill Gates, Michelle Rhee, and Arne Duncan
These “no excuses” schools have their place. Respect kids learn in these schools which isn’t picked up in generic public schools (this country very much lacks respect and empathy for others imo) kids that are forced to follow the rules allow everyone in the classroom to get an education rather than be distracted and or bullied. The ‘military’ component isn’t going to be great for everyone though, too strict and you force the softer kids into too stressful a mental place.. on the other hand if they know what to expect and rules are followed what’s the problem?
As for a quote above: “They totally restrict the development of an individual”
Please. That describes the kid in the restaurant that goes around touching everything and never told not to, “Oh I can’t tell her “no” it might hurt her feelings.” So everyone else has to put up with the disobedient kid.
Is there a cutesy-snarky term for someone living in a racially and socio-economically segregated district who slavishly denies choice for people who aren’t as fortunate?
Tim,
Why don’t you fight to end racial segregation instead of arguing for destroying public education?
You’re right, I could probably do more to fight to end racial segregation. In New York City, where I live, it is a Sisyphean task. As one of your colleagues, Pedro Noguera, has famously observed, there aren’t anywhere near enough white people left in New York to truly integrate its schools. But not fleeing for the suburbs is a lot more than most people in my middle-class shoes have done.
And of course, I can easily ask you the same question. Hyper-segregation is a feature of strictly-zoned traditional district education, not a bug. Madison (NJ and CT), Strongsville, Norton Shores, Bedford, etc. are clearly in no hurry to educate their fair share, as you like to say when the argument applies to charters, of at-risk students. What is *your* plan for integrating our hyper-segregated district schools?
It is possible, and some are doing it, to simultaneously encourage
a. Creation of more public schools, open to all, that attract students from a variety of backgrounds. In many areas this will require some form of public school choice. That’s because there are many urban and suburban areas that are mostly low income, or mostly (if not entirely) affluent, and mostly students of one race. In a previous discussion, the example of Central Park East was offered. This was part of a broad effort to create new options in a low income, mostly spanish speaking section of New York City. The East Harlem program did attract a variety of more affluent families into East Harlem. Data from CPE advocates suggests that this attraction continues.
b. Creation of more public schools that give high quality options to low income families and families of color, similar to what wealthy (mostly white) families have been able to do via suburbs.
Moreover, as regards the use of the word “segregation” Bill Wilson, the first African American elected to the St. Paul City Council, and a former Minnesota Commissioner of Human Rights, recently pointed out the considerable respect and contribution that predominantly African American institutions like Morehouse, Howard, Spelman and Maharry,
Wilson, himself a former student at a historically black college, agreed that many black people wanting to further their education went to predominantly black colleges. “These schools grew out of a segregated society,” he said. “There was no other opportunity for black students to get an education.” He said a large number of people will continue to go to black colleges for a variety of reasons, including accessibility. “Often times children leave there with a better understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. These institutions are part of our reality.”
Wilson grew up attending segregated schools, in a community, like many others, that gave no choice for black families. Wilson grew up in southern Indiana, which was segregated, and went to segregated schools. “There was no choice at all,” he said. “There were about three designated schools set aside for black children. All the other schools were set aside for everybody else. I remember riding the school bus past many, many schools, some of which I could almost see from where I lived, to get to the school that was designated for black children.” He said there was a pipeline from one segregated school to another: elementary, middle and high school.
Wilson and Nathan asked the group (and, by extension, other Minnesotans): Do you see the difference between people of color and low-income people having a choice among various schools and being required to attend a clearly inferior school because of their race?”
http://civiccaucus.org/Interviews/2012/Wilson-B_Nathan-J-11-16-12.htm
Joe, why not stop the closing of public schools that are the anchors of their communities and help them get better? Why the fascination with disruption? Disruption is not good for children and communities.
Diane, part of what happened in East Harlem was that some ineffective large schools were closed, and groups of teachers were allowed to create new small schools within a larger building. Deborah Meier and her colleagues were among the first to create new small schools or schools within schools.
The Julia Richman complex was at one time a very large school. That was closed and eight small schools, created by groups of teachers, sometimes working with parents and or community groups.
Sometimes a school can be improved by bringing in a new principal (That happened in some cases in the Cincinnati district). Sometimes it happens when a new principal and new faculty come into an existing school. Sometimes funds invested skillfully in staff retraining, and new collaborations with community groups that help strengthen families lead to stronger, more effective schools.
Closing a school should be a last resort, only after many attempts have been made to help improve the school.
“high quality options”. Joe, what “high quality options” are available in charters. They have LESS available. They are not providing “high quality”. You are promoting a lie. It is shameful that the person in the article above is misleading people in minority communities. A fully developed public school is far superior. He described an education system from years ago.
Actually, DeeDee, Bill described both a system from years ago and a system today. Years ago, he, as an African American, was forced to attend an inferior school miles from his home, because of his race. He had no options.
Today, some low income families have few options because they are trapped in communities that don’t offer options to them. And as we’ve seen in the last few months, some (often suburban )school districts hire detectives and take people to court if they have the gall to try to try to get their kids into the suburban school. A homeless women in the East was just sentenced to several years of jail because she did that.
Bill Wilson, first African American to be elected to the St. Paul City Council, and formerly Minnesota Human Rights Commissioner, has just been approved to open a 2nd school because there is a long waiting list for the k-12 Higher Ground Academy that he founded and has run for a decade.
You mentioned recently that you had chosen to move to an area where people supported public education. Some people don’t have the money to move. They appreciate having some options.
I’m not sure how much more of Joe’s corpoeduspeak I can stomach. All the rhetoric about “high quality options” is a load of horse hooey when one analyzes what is actually happening in communities across the US. In Florida, the charter school industry has successfully lobbied to exempt charters from the accountability measures to which traditional public schools are subject.
Joe claims that 2/3 of charters are “independent,” meaning exactly what? A charter may be locally organized, but managed by a for-profit company. I’ve seen cases where for-profits organized groups of parents who applied and received charters, but then hired the for profit managerial company to run the schools. Independent? Only in name. Another fine example of vulture capitalists corpoeduspeak.
Sam, the 2/3 I’m talking about are not affiliated with a for profit company or a non-profit group that manages a number of schools.
You’re conveniently ignoring the fact that the charter school industry is being taken over by for profit companies. Self-serving anecdotes about how people are being arrested for trying to get their childen into schools outside of their districts, and stories of long waiting lists may make great talking points, but the driving force behind the charter industry are the profiteers who see public education as a way to make a buck. If a child manages to recieve a good education in the process, well, that’s just a side benefit.
Lastly, I didn’t find on your organization’s web page a list of your financial backers. Assuming you’re a non-profit, perhaps you would share all your tax documents on line and provide the public with a list of all your contributors.
Not sure what happened to the site. It used to be on there. Apparently it is gone, but I saved it:
Funding for center for school change:
Funding for the Center has come from Cargill, Gates, Annenberg, Blandin, General Mills, St. Paul, St. Paul Companies, Peters, Minneapolis, TCF, Joyce, Bradley and Rockefeller Foundations, the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Initiative Funds, Best Buy, Pohlad, and Wallin Foundation.
Funny, I couldn’t find your organization listed as a non-profit on the irs web site.
Some people on this board seem to use “guilt by association.” Since my experience is that there are great people working in district and in charters, in teacher unions and other institutions. I prefer not to make judgements just on the basis of what people are doing.
I’ve been an urban public school teacher, administrator, PTA president and board member of the Mn PTA. Our 3 children all attended and graduated from St. Paul public schools. My wife just retired after 30+ years as a teacher of special needs students in St Paul Public Schools.
We currently have several projects described on our website, including 2 projects that involve collaboration between St. Paul district and charters to increase the # of students from low income families who are taking Dual (High School/College) credit programs. We’ve worked closely with both the Minneapolis and St. Paul Teacher Unions, both of which have requested our help on various projects.
Our organization has been funded by the Minnesota Dept of Education, US Dept of Education, plus a variety of foundations including Annenberg, Blandin, Bradley, Cargill, Carlson, Gates, Helzberg, Kauffman, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Travelers and Walton Foundations.
Our Center is a part of EdVisions Collaborative, a 501 (C-3) organization that promotes a variety of progressive education ideas including project based learning, an advisor/advisee system, use of multiple measures to assess student progress, etc. You can see more about them at their website, http://www.edvisions.com
We work with district, alternative & charter educators around the country, as well as state policy-makers. There are a vast array of individuals and organizations involved in efforts to improve both.
Now, here are a few questions for you:
a. Do you support the idea of suburban districts being allowed to take inner city parents to court if the inner city parent tries to enroll her/his child in the suburban district? Or do you think that parents should be able to apply to send their children across district lines if the receiving district has room?
b. Do you support giving magnet schools (such as you have in Florida) the power to use standardized tests to decide which students are admitted? Or do you believe public k-12 public schools should not be allowed to use admissions tests?
Blackboard Wars reveal charter shortcomings:
These recent disputes highlight one of the weaknesses of the charter system. Like other recent school reform schemes, the charter concept assumes that schools cannot be run effectively by democratically elected school boards. The corporate reform movement assumes that schools need to be taken over by business oriented managers like Steve Barr or even for-profit organizations like Edison Schools or K12 or Connections Academy. All of these have proven to be failures in Louisiana, yet the Jindal and White power structure wants to give them more and more students to experiment with. They even want out-of-state Course Choice Providers to be able to freely recruit students from Louisiana public schools paid for by our tax dollars with minimal accountability, just because they are privately run. There is absolutely no research that shows that these schemes educate children better. But there is plenty of evidence that for profit groups like Edison, K12 and Connections squander our tax dollars with minimal service to students. Jindal and White talk about “the urgency of now” as justification for throwing out democratic systems upon which our successful public school system has been built.
The chickens are now coming home to roost. All over the state we are witnessing dramatic charter school failures. Absolutely all the schools taken over and converted into charters in EBR, St Helena, Pointe Coupee and Caddo are failures by the very grading system forced upon our schools by Jindal and White. In recent months we have seen scandals in charter schools from unreported child sexual abuse to embezzlement, to financial collapse with schools not being able to pay utility bills, and to sheer mismanagement by incompetent amateur administrators. Now White and his TFA administrators have announced they will form an “Achievement Zone” in Baton Rouge with the very schools they have so badly mismanaged. Yet the Baton Rouge Advocate reports on the Achievement Zone as though it is an innovative action designed to correct the failures of our local school boards!
http://louisianaeducator.blogspot.com/2013/03/nolacom-blackboard-wars-reveals-charter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LouisianaEducator+%28Louisiana+Educator%29