A teacher in Arizona sent this comment:
“I live in Arizona, am a certified teacher who came from a civilized state, and have taught in four different charter schools here. These are public schools often being run like private schools. There is an infamous one here that gets away with having an entrance exam in order to weed out all but the best of the best. Consequently, this school is consistently ranked by US News and World Report as a top-notch school when, in reality, the students are the kind of children who could be taught by a monkey with a textbook.
“Arizona, backward in every way possible, was ripe for the picking. I have seen staffs comprised of high school graduate teachers who bought their degrees online and took not one college level course. I have taught in a school whose principal took federal money for a nutrition program and bought a Jaguar and, yes, this and other criminal activities were documented by several people and reported to the Arizona charter school board. What did the board do? They wrung their hands, took copies of the documentation, and did nothing. The schools are still operating.
“Come to Arizona if you want to rip off the taxpayer.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Amazing story, but totally believable! When corporate criminals takeover anything from Black water “soldiers” to charter schools, the corruption and false facts are as predictable as future glacier melting. They are given a free hand to game they system any creative way they can design.
The old saying of “A fish rots from its head down” is so apropos as we see Obama and his buddies of bankers and international corporations corrupting our social safety nets, playing Black Jack with our financial health, and feeding the ravenous military/industrial complex.
Greed spreads faster than smallpox, both are equally destructive. Seems the battle for national sanity and enlightened self interest are down for the count. Too bad for public
schools, too bad for what once was a healthy economy and the rule of law.
I live in Arizona, am freshly retired from the US military, and have no children. Even from this vantage point, it doesn’t take much effort to see that Arizona’s under paid, hard working (at multiple jobs), parents are too busy trying to survive to notice that their legislators are feeding their tax dollars to private school corporations, by the buckets! We can write-off on our state taxes more than twice the level of donations to privateschools than public schools. We have until tax day the next year to it it for private schools, and only until Dec 31st of the tax year for public schools. And, we can only designate “extra curricular” activities for public schools, but can give it to the O&M, general educational fund for private schools. This state needs a giant court audit to declare its whole education funding system unconstitutional!
Charter schools ARE private schools getting public tax money. Here in NJ, they are imposed on a school district by the Czar of Education, Chris Cerf, without the input of the residents. The residents get no say, no vote on whether a charter school is dumped into their district, they don’t get to vote directly on the charter school budget or any vote at all on the charter school board of directors. The charter school does not work in cooperation with the local duly elected school board, it operates like a separate school district unto itself. As far as I can tell, the charter school crowd does not want cooperation with the real public schools, they want quite the opposite, they want cut-throat competition.
Arizona teacher: “I have seen staffs comprised of high school graduate teachers who bought their degrees online and took not one college level course.”
To the Arizona teacher… destroying the profession of teaching and filling it with unqualified faux teachers is not a bug in the privatizers’ “reform” model, it is a feature.
I just found this from the Connecticut Policy Institute—a “think tank” and “a non-partisan research institute on Connecticut economic policy and education reform” that fronts for for-profit business interests that are trying to profit from the privatization of education. To do this, they put out bogus “studies” and “policy papers” in support of these business interests’ practices and approaches to privatized education:
http://www.ctmirror.org/op-ed/2013/06/30/vallas-certification-debacle-reveals-shortcomings-education-reform-efforts
In this op-ed, Ben Zimmer defends Vallas’ lack of credentialing, but goes one further.
Not only should there be no credential requirement for Superintendents, THERE SHOULD BE NO CREDENTIALING OR EDUCATION REQUIREMENT OF TEACHERS (???!!!) as well as ADMINISTRATORS.
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Ben Zimmer: “With a few exceptions, Connecticut law requires teachers to have a degree in education, meaning many talented people who didn’t decide to become teachers until after completing their educations have difficulty doing so.
“This serves the economic interests of existing teachers and administrators by limiting competition for their jobs, but does not advance the goal of obtaining the highest quality teaching and administration possible.”
————————————————————
Don’t you get it? If the government entity in charge of education requires thing like ohhh… bachelor’s degrees, or even 2-year community college associate degrees… or even one single college course… well, you’re just “serving the economic interest of existing teachers and administrators by limiting competition for their jobs.”
Those teachers who’ve actually achieved these “worthless degrees” will bring along with them accompanying demands for a decent salary, health benefits, retirement, etc…. AND WHO NEEDS THAT when you’re trying to make a profit… err… excuse me… make “transformational change” in education?
Oh, you don’t believe this? Well, Connecticut Policy Institute’s “studies and papers” have “proven” all of this to be true… that you need nothing more than a high school diploma to teach in K-12 schools.
Zimmer goes on:
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Ben Zimmer: “As the Connecticut Policy Institute has discussed in our papers on education reform, there is no evidence linking certification regimes to teachers’ or administrators’ effectiveness in increasing student achievement. They simply serve to limit the recruitment pipeline of outstanding educators and keep the antiquated education administration departments of the state university system in business.”
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An organization fronting for business interests that want to profit from the privatization of education—some of them charter school chain CEO”s making $500,000/year or more (Geoffrey Canada)—has its spokesman attacking education departments—some of them Ivy League universities… most of them having turning out quality teachers for 100-150 years or more—as only being “in business” to advance the selfish financial interests of their administrators and professors that work in them. They are deliberately blocking “outstanding educators” from entering the field because they are out for themselves, and not the students’.
Wow! I”m so glad someone’s finally blowing the lid off this!
But then look at this assclown Zimmer’s bio at Connecticut Policy Institute:
http://ctpolicyinstitute.org/about/bio/ben-zimmer/leadership
He proudly touts his own education credentials:
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“Ben received a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he specialized in business law and economic policy, and a B.A., magna cum laude with highest honors in history, from Harvard College.”
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But Ben, I thought those high-falutin’ things like degrees didn’t matter. Aren’t those “J.D.’s” and “B.A.s” and “magna cum laude’s” just worthless pieces of paper spit out by “antiquated” entities that are only trying to keep themselves “in business” to pay the undeserved salaries of the folks who work in them?
No, no, no… you see in Ben’s world, rigid requirements like… oh… years of post-secondary education, or even passing a certification test…. those things only matter in OTHER careers or professions. They don’t matter in the realm of K-12 education… as his noble “kids first” organization, Connecticut Policy Institute, has produced studies and papers” have “proven” that.
No, according to Ben, teaching is like working the fry machine at McDonald’s… just let anyone in the door—education and credentials be damned—to have at it and compete for the job, then just keep the ones who do it best. And THAT is how you end up with a staff of what Ben describes as a nation of “outstanding educators.”
Got that?
You see the way to get better teachers in front of kids is just simple… so simple that those antiquated ed departments full of money-motivated hacks have been missing it for over 150 years.
The way to fill our country’s schools with “outstanding educators” is to lower or even eliminate the standards and requirements for becoming one.
That’s it!!!! Why hasn’t anyone thought of that until now?
What’s that, you say? The highest achieving nations like Finland and South Korea don’t operate that way? In those countries, becoming a teacher is as difficult and demanding as becoming a doctor?
Well, that would never work here in the United States.
One of my favorite online course providers is The Art of Problem Solving (http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/). I think that only one member of the teaching staff has an education degree, but I hope that you would agree they have an unusually well qualified teaching staff.
The direct link to the teaching staff is here:
http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/School/index.php?page=school.instructors
On-line courses have a dismal record…
and that’s becoming more and more
obvious all the time, based on data.
You know I once heard Bill Gates say about
teachers (it’s on the net somewhere) that most
of them would go the way of travel agents
and bank tellers… as technology—digital
courses and on-line course lectures projected
onto walls a la teleconferencing—will
eventually replace most, if not all of
teachers…
This is an idiotic analogy, as adults
doesn’t require a close, personal
relationship with their travel agent
or with their bank teller, while
children / students most certainly
do… particularly children in low-income
communities raised in single-family
homes, or homes where the parent(s)
work such long hours that often
a student’s teacher spends more
hours with that child’s teacher than
the parents themselves….
Gates sends his own kids to Lakeside,
a rich kids’ private school,
where the instruction is 100% “live”,
with the instructors in the room,
not projected up onto a screen,
where the student-teacher ratio is far
lower than that of the neighborhood
public schools that he’s now “reforming”…
with those reforms including raising
class size sky-high, and eliminating
or severely weakening university
education department training of
the teachers… otherwise
known as “de-professionalization”
carried out by bogus organizations
like NCTQ (but that’s been dealt
with elsewhere).
Gates has argued for higher and higher
class size, so that more students will
be exposed to “excellent” teachers.
Well, let’s see… they rate “excellence”
based on test scores…. a dubious measure,
but still… let’s assume that this is
worthy method…
Two of the factors or variables that
enable an “excellent” teacher to get
kids scoring higher on a test… are…
1) small (or comparatively smaller
before Gates’ reforms lead more
and more kids being dumped into
each room):
AND
2) live “in-the-room” presence and
attention from the teacher… where
the kids aren’t watching a teacher
up on a screen… and who can give
individualized attention.
If you alter those two variables…
that same teacher will not be as
“excellent”… Any idiot could see
this, but the money-motivated
“reformers” don’t, but instead
order up bogus, pre-cooked
“studies” that “prove” that class
size and live instruction aren’t
effective.
Furthermore, the link that
you provided show all these folks
with degrees and that’s great, but—
as a veteran teacher, I can tell you
that degrees ALONE do not indicate
quality… especially if those teachers
have not had a traditional university
training as a teacher (TFA folks
with whom I’ve interacted.) A man
or woman can graduate from
the most renown university in
a core subject, have a sky-high
I.Q., etc. … and still suck as a teacher,
as being a teacher requires
whole variety of special skills,
experience, an training.
(I”ve seen this time and time again
not to believe othewise).
Seriously… compare the two following
categories of teachers…
1) four years of an ed. degree,
with courses in pedagogy,
child development, etc.
plus
another 2 getting a Master’s
Degree / credential, with
intense training in classroom
management, lesson planning, etc.
plus
a year apprenticeship period working
as a Teacher’s Assistant (teacher in
training) alongside a veteran teacher
who imparts his/her experiences and
knowledge…
versus…
2 a) no training in any of the above,
or
2 b) the 5-week Jonestown-ish quackery of
TFA training… (do NOT get me started
on all that I’ve learned about THAT!)
Well, it’s not really a close call, as to who’s
going to do a better job.
And if you don’t buy this, keep in mind
that it’s the first category of teachers
that make up the staffs of rich kids’ private
schools that the money-motivated ed.
reformers send their own children to.
You think for a second that they would
pay $20,000 – $50,000/year to K-12 schools
staffed by people with no degrees in
education, or with a TFA-dominated
faculty—you know like the staffs that are
filling up the newly-created charter schools
or “charterized” schools in lower-income
neighborhoods after they’ve been
“reformed” (i.e. in Chicago) ?
No, these parents demand something for
their own children that—in the pursuit of
lowering costs and maximizing
profit—they would never provide for
the children of the schools that they
“reform.”
My online class seemed to go pretty well this summer, but it is a post secondary class.
I certainly agree that degrees alone do not mean that one is a good teacher. I just think that holds for people with degrees in education as well.
Diane, with all due respect–and you are due a great deal of respect–I think it would be better if you kept this sort of story in the comments section, where it belongs.
This story, even if it is true, is merely one viewpoint of one person in the state of AZ. And we don’t really know it is true.
There is no good reason for you or I to believe that this is truly representative of what is happening in AZ as a whole, unless there is a good deal of factual supporting evidence. “I have seen . . .” doesn’t make a very strong case.
Dave, that’s what’s called “empirical”
evidence.
Whether or not this man’s anecdotal
observations are widespread, or an
exception is to some degree a moot
point.
The main idea is that the new laws
and systems in place in Arizona
allows these abominations to occur,
provides no safeguards against them,
and no way to remedy them once
they have occurred… as evidenced
in his testimony. Therefore, if it’s
not widespread, it eventually will
be, as there’s nothing to stop it.
Undermining all this is a philosophy
of de-regulate everything, let the
free market run wild, and a new
privatized educational utopia will
emerge, as the competition and
profit-motivated entrepreneurs
will lead us there.
Can you name one country on
earth, in all human history, that
has improved its educational
system this way—through rampant
profit-motivated and cut-throat
competition?
Indeed, the record shows that the
countries with the highest
educational achievement (Finland)
DO EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.
There was the unfortunate K. Spradlin incident about a year ago. Here is the link:https://dianeravitch.net/2012/10/27/attention-should-be-paid/
The same thing is happening in Michigan charters. The thievery is legal. I have no doubt it is the same in Arizona since legislators have failed to protect taxpayers.
Dave,
Where do you suggest the “factual supporting evidence” come from? Are you calling for unbiased independent peer-reviewed research? The institutions and policies that USED TO fund and/or conduct such investigations are being undone bit-by-bit and replaced by corporate-backed organizations and corporate-backed investigations.
For example, much of the research into digital learning has been funded by Bill Gates, Pearson, MacMillan, the Walton foundation, and other corporations ready to profit from digital learning – hardly sources of your called for “factual evidence”. Here in Arizona in 2012-13, Arizona State University placed 7,600 students in entry-level digital math courses running on Knewton software. There was no debate or research to support the decision. You can read about it here
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-big-data-taking-teachers-out-lecturing-business
It’s important to note that even THIS SCIENTIFC AMERICAN article cannot be trusted for independent reporting because Knewton is a partner with Macmillan which a sister company to Scientific American.
How will the people access unbiased evidence when more and more of our information comes from corporate-backed institutions, corporate-funded-grants, and corporate-controlled policies? The people need to be awakened that our access to factual evidence is in danger when we hand over our public institutions and our sources of research to for-profit-backed interest groups or foundations.
How is the charter allowed to require an entrance exam?
Arizona is the wild west for Charter schools. There was investigative reporting done by the Arizona Republic. In it was stated the fact that no one knows exactly how much money has been lost and wasted by charters in AZ because the charter laws were written with very little oversight, One thing that really burns me up about this is the contrast with the strict accounting controls placed on regular public schools. I am a retired school librarian. When we reached a $5,000 spending limit with any company, we were required to get bids to use that company again. That 5 thousand dollar cap was for the entire school district, an easy one to reach when buying library-bound books, In contrast, charters have been allowed to ignore such requirements. So, we now have many schools, supposedly non-profit, that are purchasing goods and services from family run businesses. The commenter referred to a top notch charter school and I believe he meant Basis. In the Republic article (I believe) they showed how the supposedly non-profit Basis buys most of its goods and services from the for profit management companies set up by the founders of the school. I believe I read that of their 13 million dollar budget,11 million went to their family business.
Diane had a post a few months back about the Basis schools and I commented about the selective enrollment . I pointed out the my district provided a great education to student who had transferred to Basis, but were also required to provide appropriate educational services to students with learning and behavior challenges. A few Basis parents followed up my comments by stating that if students couldn’t “cut it” at Basis, then they should leave. To me, that confirmed my point that we should not be comparing regular public schools with selective charters like Basis. And following that interchange, my husband told me about an interesting conversation he overheard in a restaurant. A teenager was telling her grandmother how she was REQUIRED to take at least 9 AP classes at Basis.
Charters legalize segregation, and for some reason, many people seem to think that’s OK.