I received this email from a high school teacher in Memphis. Please read it and understand that we must organize against the destruction of public education in America. This, plus the court approval of vouchers in Indiana yesterday sends an ominous message: the radical reactionaries are determined to destroy public education. We must fight back. We must awaken parents and civic leaders.
This comes from Memphis:
“Diane,
“Public education in Memphis/Shelby County is on the verge of collapse.
“Gates gave $90 million to Memphis City Schools, and now he’s calling the shots: increased class sizes, no extra pay for advanced degrees, merit pay based on test scores, etc.
“The initial budget for the first year of operation for the merged district is already $145 million in the red.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/feb/12/memphis-shelby-school-board-ups-the-ante-in/
“Yet last night the school board voted to continue paying $350,000 a month to a four-person team from Parthenon, a consulting group, to develop a merit pay system to stick it to teachers.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2013/mar/26/unified-memphis-shelby-school-board-rejects-pay/
“That’s $87,500 per month per Parthenon team member. In a year, each team member will gross $1,050,000 for Parthenon. $4.2 million altogether. (Meanwhile, they’re looking to cut teacher pay and health and retirement benefits.)
“The best part: No one on the Parthenon “education” team is a classroom educator. They’re all business strategists, investors, lawyers, and—surprise, surprise—former members of the Gates Foundation. http://www.parthenon.com/Industries/Education
“Help expose these corporate reformer frauds!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
OOOOHHHH!! Check out this gentleman. He is a TFA alumni. One more example of the web that TFA has spun.
http://www.parthenon.com/leadership/SethReynolds
And a charter chap, too:
Seth is a founding member of the Board of Trustees of Excel Academy Charter Schools, a charter network in the Boston.
The performance pay proposal hasn’t passed–yet. Whenever the new board configuration comes (August?), I’m sure a pro-performance pay member will raise the issue.
The “research” the board is using to support the notion that advanced degrees and experience don’t affect student achievement is a year’s worth of district TVAAS data (the paragon of validity and accuracy) and a Gates-funded study.
Last week one astute board member asked if there is any evidence performance pay will raise students’ test scores. The Transition Steering Committee was asked to provide the board with research on performance pay. If they did, it wasn’t discussed at last night’s meeting. It would’ve taken roughly five minutes to find the studies linked to Nashville’s, Chicago’s, New York’s, and D.C.’s failed performance pay systems.
Oh my god,,this is disgusting. Some of my collegues say this too shall pass but it won’t. This is desgined to create non-critical thinkers who only get a script. As the middle class declines, so too will public education.
Watch THE BLAZE for Wednesday . Glenn Beck does an amazing EXPOSE of Common Core. Documented proof. Do whatever you need to do to watch it. Well worth the subscription to the BLAZE .
This is just another Gates et al rip off of another school district of size in the U.S. They want it all and have the financial resources to do the attack. In order to properly understand the real situation a few financial facts need to be known such as: what is the ADA, what is the funding/ADA, how is the district funded, is it as usual a combination of federal, state, special state and local. What are those percentages, what percentage of the total revenue is employee wages and benefits, is there bond construction money, how much, what is the cost of construction/sq.ft., what is the norm for the area and work this back 10 years if you really want to know what has been going on and where you are headed. One other important factor is knowing the enrollment, or those who sign up, and the ADA, or those who really come everyday. The difference is those who do not come to school everyday. In California you are only supposed to be paid for those who come everyday, ADA. At LAUSD last year over 112,000 or about 17% of the enrollment did not come everyday to school. 10 years previous when LAUSD had 156,000 more in enrollment it was only 14,500 or 2% that did not come to school everyday. LAUSD lost over $1 billion in revenue as a result of seemingly not caring if they came to school or not. This analysis needs to be done there also. I can spend any school district into debt. Rhee did it with about $29,000/student and sure as can be there is not that much there so it would be an easier job for sure if you tried so you could complete your political goal of destroying public schools.
From an earlier blog article on this website,
you see what a hypocrite Gates is:
https://dianeravitch.net/2013/01/12/seattle-writer-challenges-bill-gates-to-be-consistent/
Why doesn’t Bill Gates just butt the-hell out? The parents and the citizen-taxpayers should be in control of public education, not some billionaire thousands of miles away up in Seattle with ZERO background in education. Should he just be able to buy control of our schools?
There is plenty to worry about if you’re a public school teacher, but we can’t become discouraged or disheartened. Rather we must become organized across our districts and, more importantly, across the country. Perhaps we can establish a ” Stand Up For Public Education” day across the country. Also, from a teacher’s union standpoint, we must seriously consider transitioning from a service union to a social justice union. Too many of our teaching colleagues view the union as a guarantor of benefits, and there is nothing wrong with this. However, the problems we are facing now go beyond pay and benefits. The efforts being made by the corporate reformist have nothing to do with improving educational opportunities for middle and lower class students. Instead, these “reformist” have found the next great investment frontier. Our students are their returns of investment/
Anthony and Diane, please advise!
OK, I live here in Shelby County. This article is crap. The problems and issues are ALL based on decisions by the Shelby County Commission. Gates money has already been blown through. This all started when the Memphis City Schools, which is a terrible school system, decided not to fund their school system because they decided it was the county’s responsibility to fund their schools. They withheld ALL their funding and thus began spending it on tax rebates, pay raises for municipal workers,etc. until is was all gone. This went to court and the ruling came down that Memphis indeed needed to fund their school system. They realized they were going to have around $60 million shortfall, so in an act that defies logic, they voted to rescind their charter and join the Shelby County School system, a very well run and successful system. No notice, no discussion. They pissed in their own pot and now want to combine into one HUGE system and also want to run it. They just bought out the county superintendent’s contract (he was just named superintendent of the year for Tennessee, plus I go to church with him – great guy!) and are wasting money on a national search. The combined school board set a budget of $145 million based on wacky arithmetic – everyone in Shelby County is rolling their eyes at that one because Lord knows where the money is going to come from. Gates funded extra teachers in the classroom, special programs for kids who needed extra help, etc. His money is gone and so is his influence. All of the things cited in this article come from those idiots who abandoned the kids in the first place. And guess what – my house goes on the market Monday morning. I’m out of here and so are a lot of my neighbors. We have a great school system in Collierville, but the dumb***es from Memphis are going to ruin it. NOT Bill Gates. This article is pure hyperbole.
What you say regarding funding is true, but you’re disregarding the Gates Foundation influence. The Gates money has been spent largely on the TEI (Teacher Effectiveness Initiative) that focuses on teacher evaluation, teacher compensation (think performance pay). And, no, the Gates money has not all been spent. The grant doesn’t expire for another few years. If you read the TPC recommendations, you’ll see a number of the recommendations, particularly those involving teacher evaluation and compensation, align with what the Gates Foundation promotes. In fact, some of them specifically mention the GF.
On top of the Gates Foundation influence, TNTP (a Rhee-originated urban staffing group now in 25 cities) which has been running much of the staffing for MCS for a couple years, is now a significant part of the unified district’s hiring.
So, yes, financial bungling and poor decisions led to the “merger” of the two districts, but the corporate-style ed reform is undeniable.
I, too, reside in Shelby County and not surprisingly, my view of the problem is a bit different. I was not in agreement with combining the city and county schools but finding a way not to cause the citizens of Memphis to pay double for a service that is provided to suburbanites for simply the price of a portion of their property tax does have merit. Citizens were not invited to determine how the saved money was spent. Most, though not all, of the negative verbage regarding the consolidation of schools is simply based on racial divisiveness. Comfortable white folk don’t want poor black children sitting beside their children in school. Truth is that county schools’ test scores are much better than those in the inner city. But I believe that your smart child will not become less smart by sitting beside a learning disabled child of any color. These folk who want to sell their homes and run probably think that they are being protective of their own rather than what they really are. Agreed, what is happening to schools in our county is scary and my children are no longer in the schools, but my grandchild is. I want quality education for him as well as for the children of all parents on my community and frankly I do not believe that being dictated to by non-educators is good for schoolchildren or their teachers. If good educators could be relieved of the pressures of politicians who know not of what they speak and people like Mr. Gates who give money with strings attached that only the deal makers agreed with, problems could be more clearly identified and possibly addressed. Of course the “dumb***es from Memphis” statement likely referred to the color of the majority of the former Memphis school board members. I once hoped that there existed the possibility of people of good will who could solve problems for the benefit of all affected parties. But the reality in this case is that when things don’t go their way, they either change the state constitution to permit the creation of their own school districts or move. That is certainly the way to model community spirit, teamwork and compromise for the next generation.
The facts that Andrea N has presented are so far from the real truth but sure sound good and as usual when Memphians don’t have their facts they call you a racist.
As for taxation, Memphians do pay both Memphis tax and Shelby County taxes towards schools where as someone who lives in the County only pays county tax….therefore that sounds unfair to Memphians but what she forgets to tell everyone through ignorance or by choice is that an agreement was reached years ago addressing this issue and for every $1 spent on buildings in the county the county pays Memphis an additional $3 dollars of tax money to help offset so if we build a 2 million dollar school the city gets 6 million in tax funding from the county govt.
Also,the city of Memphis has spent almost 20% more per pupil versus the county for years and have done less with more money. Why does a school built in the county cost 1.5 million but the same school in Memphis manages to cost 10-20% more to build? The land cost is basically the same. They spend tax payer money with incredible disrespect and when called out you become a racist or you don’t care for kids.
What she didnt tell you is that a group called the TPC ( local community people to help make recommendations for the merger) and they told the county commission and school board that 30 schools in Memphis need to be closed due to under utilization and to help offset the 150 million dollar shortfall. The new board which is dominated by Memphians (who failed their kids and gave up their charter) only want to close 6. They think the govt is this unending bankroll and don’t understand finances which is what got them in his position in he first place.. They would never succeed in private business and now they want everyone in the county to pay more while increasing classroom sizes, eliminating support staff, etc. IF the city would obey the recommendations and reduce the debt then much respect and trust would be gained from those in the county.
Lastly as she accuses people like myself in the county of being racist…let me share this. That is the furthest thing from our hearts and minds. My kids went to one of the well to do county schools and the racial breakdown was 55% African American and 40% white, 5% other. My daugher played basketball for 3 years and she was only one of 3 white girls on he team. she loved her teammates. we had everyone over for snacks, we helped with carpooling, etc but this is the label Memphis wants to put onus. We loved our school and we don’t want it to change on who we educate. What we do want is to have a board that listens to our community,that is accessible and cares about our kids. We use to have a board representative that covered approx 7000 kids. Under the unified system with 7 board members that person would then handle approx 20,000 kids per board member. We are being asked to pay the majority of the tax bill due to our housing being more expensive but less voice? Who wants that?
Legislation is going to pass and in 2 yrs we will have our schools back and a board member will then represent maybe 1500 students. This is way better and giving detailed care to all students.
Due to the lack of a voice the communities have come together and asked the state to be allowed to start their own schools in their own municipalities they reside. Sounds very reasonable and American to me.
I agree with Bill on this one. Disagree with the people of Memphis and you’re labeled a racist. People in the suburbs just don’t like the whole way this was dumped on us. I haven’t a care about what color, economic background, etc. a child is that is in the class. Please understand this because I don’t know how many times this has been said – we fear the administration that sunk Memphis City Schools will be adamant in having the majority say in the new unified system and continue to make ill-advised decisions and spend money with little accountability. Memphis can have all the community spirit, teamwork, etc. it wants. My community has spirit too. Arbitrary lines were drawn years ago to put us in a county with Memphis, but we are not Memphis. I want my school board members to know my community, know the families, etc. I don’t want them to have an “Us vs. Them” attitude from the start. We weren’t even allowed to vote on this merger – only Memphis voters. How fair was that?
Cheri,
One of these days folk like you will realize you are in the same bag with the dumb asses you refer to as Memphians. sooner or later you will realize if you are not, and you are not, one of the multimillionaires who want to own this country, you fall in the same bag with us. What a rude awakening it will be when you and your kind realize the small set of people want to keep ALL people in line. Yes that inculdes you. And may I ask you one question? Where are you going to run to when you finally do sell your house to some dumb ass as you say from Memphis? Certainly not with the Bill Gates of the world. You are os hyped up about Memphis and it’s inferior school system. Get the facts before you speak. One fact you may not know is that the “Bill Gates” of the world’s children don’t go to public school any way. So who are you hurting with your bias opinions? The common people of the world like you and me a Memphian.
There are so many school districts across this country under attack by “corporate ed reform”… look what took place in a matter of ONLY ONE WEEK (really and truly) in Prince George’s County MD… and to add insult to injury, the corporate take-over crew decided to hold a meeting of the evening of spring vacation when most teachers are traveling to families… Read the email sent to teachers:
MABE
The Prince George’s County Senators have introduced Senate Bill 1071, entitled the “Academic Revitalization and Management Effectiveness Initiative” for the Prince George’s County School System.
This bill is substantially similar to the amendments to House Bill 1107 which MABE opposed when circulated in the House last week; and the subject of the Prince George’s Delegation meeting on Saturday, March 23.
MABE opposes Senate Bill 1071 because its primary goal is to shift budget authority and employment of the local Superintendent away from the local Board of Education to the county government.
Senate Bill 1071 is a 25-page bill to restructure the Prince George’s County school system, Board of Education and office of the Superintendent. The bill would consolidate authority in the new office of CEO of the Prince George’s County school system and limit the authority of the Board of Education by:
Making the CEO of the school system a cabinet-level appointee and at-will employee serving at the pleasure of the County Executive;
Allowing the CEO, as an employee of the County Executive, to:
Prepare the school system’s annual budget; and
Prepare curriculum guides, courses of study, and lists of textbooks and other instructional materials;
Granting the CEO the sole authority to set attendance areas and consolidate schools;
Making the CEO responsible for the management and oversight of all school system operations (administration, instructional salaries, special education, transportation, food services, etc.)
Granting the County Executive’s one appointed member of the Board veto power over Board actions (see below).
Senate Bill 1071 would severely limit the authority of the Board of Education by:
Granting the Board of Education very limited policy making powers focused on improving student achievement and community engagement;
Making the Board of Education “responsible” for the academic achievement of the students, and responsible for providing effective curriculum, instructional, and assessment programs;
Prohibiting the Board of Education from implementing any policy or taking any action contrary to the CEO’s management and oversight actions unless the Board has a two-thirds majority that must include the vote of the County Executive’s appointee. This allows for a one-member veto of Board of Education action.
Senate Bill 1071 would restructure the Board of Education by:
Converting the elected board to a hybrid board of the current 9 elected member and student board member, by adding 1 voting member appointed by the county council and 1 voting member appointed by the county executive;
Adding ex officio members, including the President of the Prince George’s County PTA, and 3 members appointed by the Presidents of the University of Maryland, Bowie State, and Prince George’s Community College.
Again, MABE opposes Senate Bill 1071 because its primary goal is to shift budget authority and employment of the local Superintendent away from the local Board of Education to the county government.
Call to Action – Urge your Senators and Delegates to oppose Senate Bill 1071, because it would:
Limit the Board of Education to a policy making role;
Give school system budget and oversight control to the county government; and
Make the superintendent an at-will employee of the county government.
The General Assembly should reject this school system takeover and:
Not allow a county government to have total control over not only the county funding but also the state funding for public education;
Not allow a county government to employ the superintendent who is responsible for requesting adequate funding from the county government; and
Not allow the total restructuring of a local school system without the type of comprehensive study proposed by House Bill 1107. (Note – House Bill 1107 passed the House and remains available to the Senate as a bill to create a “Task Force to Evaluate Best Practices for School Board Operation in Prince George’s County.”
MABE urges all boards and board members in Maryland to immediately contact their legislators, Senators and Delegates, to oppose a county government takeover of the Prince George’s County Board of Education and office of the superintendent. There is grave concern that Senate Bill 1071 will pass the Senate and soon be before the House. So contacting Delegates now is timely.
Link to Roster of All Legislators by County and District
Someone involved in this MUST research the Delph Technique used by leftist agenda types in your meetings. They control the meetings and their outcome using this. Don’t be caught unaware.
Both the high school teacher and Cheri make good points and show how much contention has been generated in Memphis and Shelby County. The term “merger” has been ill-defined causing confusion. I think what is different about Memphis, is that through this so-called merger, charter schools have been foisted onto the suburbs. The excuse for charters has usually been that they give the poor a way out of failing schools. Parents in Shelby County were happy with their schools and rejected charters for many years. Now, even if they are allowed to form their own municipal school districts, taxes will increase and they will most likely get charter schools and all that comes with them. It is important to note that representatives from Stand for Children are prominent on the school transition board.
Dr. Benjamin Mays and Margaret Mitchell used money, power and integrity to move education forward. Knowledge, integrity, and ethics are the missing components to public, private, and higher education. Everyone must get involved in this crisis.
Hi Diane,
I noticed that you have posted some George Buzzetti’s comments on your blogs. I am interested on getting a hold of him to see if he can help me on my case. I was wondering if you have an email address or a phone number where I can reach him. I would really appreciated. You can give him my email address if he prefers to contact me himself.
They are all corrupt. Public “education” is corrupt to it’s core and Gates and the Parthenon Group are corrupt too. $325K per month!?!? Seriously? How many kids would that “educate”. The ONLY answer is vouchers. Parents will generally spend the money much more wisely when it’s their money to spend. And you put poor kids on equal footing with rich kids., And teacher pay will rise because there will be competition for teachers. Common Core is a serious threat to our country’s future. Look into it.
TN BATS has a Parthenon Group Power Point (2012) ‘Balancing Opportunity & Risk’ from its education division they made for potential investors pitching CommonCore adoption. One slide breathlessly claims that ” if CC gets teeth the performance gap gets a lot bigger!” This measn more kids & schools will fail that opens space for privatization.
There is another Parthenon Group PP (2009) ‘Investing in Education’ made as a pitch to investors that says “some kids are more profitable than others.”
Both are on the Tennessee BATs Facebook page under files https://www.facebook.com/groups/389063467866428/files/