No surprise: Sacramento gets new charter schools staffed by inexperienced Teach for America recruits, non-union, of course.
Michelle Rhee’s husband is mayor of Sacramento.
How many would choose a doctor or lawyer with five weeks of training? Raise your hand.
Lots of money from the anti-union Walton Family Foundation, as well as Gates and Broad.
Maybe the foundations think that it’s good enough for poor kids, not for their own.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This post has inspired me to start “Drill for America”. My DFA corp will be made up of recent high school graduates who completed my 3 week course in dentistry. I will send my minions into inner city areas to perform dentistry in mobile vans for the benefit of improve dental care for the poor. After two months of service, DFA workers will move into my DFA law program.
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“Cavity is not Destiny!!!!”
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Cavity is not destiny…lol…I literally just spewed coffee out of my nose lol!!
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“Defend for America” will supply defense lawyers for the poor – certainly better than most public defenders.
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Some of the best lines:
There was little news coverage of TFA’s coming to California’s capital city. Was this an accident?
The answer is unclear. What is clear is Michelle Rhee, a TFA alumnus, helms StudentsFirst, an education reform group hostile to teachers’ labor unions, from its national headquarters in Sacramento.
Rhee is married to the city’s mayor, Kevin Johnson; they are registered Democrats. Critical news coverage of their efforts to reform public education is limited.
One might think that kids growing up in poor neighborhoods need the wisdom of experienced teachers. However, TFA teachers are novices to the profession.
Apparently, what TFA corps members lack in experience they make up for elsewhere in their classroom instruction. It is not clear why less time teaching versus more improves children’s learning.
Howard was unable to share longitudinal achievement data for Sacramento students of TFA teachers for their year in the capital city. Such numbers of course assume that testing results as the dominant and controlling factor in education are a legitimate means for assessing students’ learning.
My prayers are with the children and families of Sacramento.
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Whatever else you do, don’t leave those children alone in a room with Sacramento mayor and current Rhee husband, Kevin Johnson, who has been accused of sexually abusing teenagers; Kevin Huffman, Rhee’s ex husband, apparently doesn’t, since he has custody of their kids.
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You’d think the sliminess of both would rule them ineligible to speak on matters of schooling and children. But noooooo! Kevin has had several run-ins with female minors which has cost him several hundred thousands of dollars in
‘settlement payments’ and the other, Michelle is an enabler. She took some ‘vacation days’ in 2009 to help Kevin out at St. Hope and allegedly interfere in an IG’s investigation and other wrong doings.
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Would Mayor Kevin have any such problem again, wife Michelle would simply remedy by taping their mouths shut.
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Michael…a further problem in Sacramento is another parent trigger believer, and of course, charter school rah rah girl, is running for their School Board.
Rhee and her husband are trying to stack the deck after they closed 23 schools in the past year to impose charters. It is so reminiscent of the John Birch Society days of the late 60s and early 70s, when they focused on electing Birch enthusiasts to school boards across the nation, and started with small town, Vista, Ca.
All things crazy seen to start in my wonderful state.
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Ellen, we feel for you Californians. But, like Diane, I AM absolutely
convinced that we can turn it around. Even Illinois experienced victory yesterday in the area of special ed! (State supt./ILBoE attempted to eliminate class size restrictions. Due to overwhelming opposition via calls, e-mails & in-person testimony, Board Chairman did not call for vote.) Now, state supt. wants to meet for a compromise. We’ll stay vigilant & outspoken!
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Hey, I’ll be in the audience in Sacramento on the 27th. The Sac mayor would like Sacramento to be a “strong mayor” format city. Why? So he can interact more with the Kings and NBA, with less interference from people who have substantive concerns about Sacramento? Never, never vote in a former NBA player as mayor. And then he married Michelle Rhee. Clueless on a whole other front!
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Ask him about the Phoenix and St. Hope allegations.
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Here are some facts from the California Dept. of Education (CDE) website for 2011-12 which is the latest information. Enrollment-46,472, ADA-41,131, not coming to school everyday-5,341, % not coming to school everyday 12%, 69% Title 1 or poverty, total revenue-$9,480, expenditures-$9,774, deficit spending-$294/student, extra funding for catagorical or other state-$875, extra funding from Feds-$250. All numbers/student.
Also Sacramento City has 6 more students/teacher than the average in the state.
Rhee and husband, you are doing such a good job up there that we should let you all run the destruction of the U.S. since you are doing so good at it in Sacramento. So, you have 6 more students than the state average per teacher. You have extra high funding and yet you have a deficit? That is really good management. You only gave up $50.6 million in revenue since you only get paid for those who come to school and your students who do not come to school everyday is constantly every year going up. Great Job, I say to you. You have an API of 767 which is not real good and not real bad. Of course that is partially because you drove off the low performing on tests students. And if you are under 800 API you can be taken over. Only 40 high schools in California are over 800 API.
Tell us now Michelle and husband destroyers Why are you so qualified to tell us anything about education considering your “REAL RECORDS?”
Michelle, how would you like me to take apart the budgets of D.C. while you were there? Ask Deasy and all the past LAUSD people what that is like. This is just a fast look at Sacramento City. There is much much more especially when looked at over time and if brought up to date with their budgets.
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If potentially low performers such as ELL students and Special Ed students, do not take the tests…obviously the test results are skewed. Rhee is the ideal parent contact person to suggest parents keep those children home on test days.
She, of eraser fame in DC, seems to be able to magically do things with erasers that might cause others to be indicted. See the Merrow secret document.
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Dare I say…isn’t what you describe in your first paragraph illegal?
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Ahem, “strong schools” can survive constant staff churn, as every expert knows.
However….that doesn’t make any sense since we were told TFA were going into “failing schools” where lazy union teachers (who might also be middle aged, so obviously not suitable) were not available.
Try not to apply any critical thought to ed reform, and it hangs together.
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Actually I think your 5 week wonder dentists should specialize in only billionaires since they proclaim this is perfect education to do complex jobs. Put up in other words. Good enough for us good enough for them.
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Speaking of lawyers….why is it that the U.S. Dept of Justice is led by someone with 35 years experience practicing law, but the U.S. Dept of Education is led by someone with 0 years of practicing teaching? At least Spellings subbed for a year. Maybe instead of a Sec. of Ed we should have a Teacher General like we have an Attorney General….Teacher General, sounds like a title Rhee would want.
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The state of Arne-fied & TFAed education in the U.S.A in three short words:
Churned, burned & unlearned!
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There is not a thing wrong with a Parent Trigger or in California Empowerment Laws. When you have terrible school districts like LAUSD you need some tool in the toolbox for parents. After all, it is their school and their children there. The problem is the illegal manner in which Ben Austin and his Walton et al financed Parent Revolution break the law and no one does anything until CORE-CA started educating people about the law and with the assistance and planning of the California Title 1 Parent Union led by Yolande Beckles and Walter Richardson there was no training. We were the first and are starting to do just that soon. We don’t wait for anyone as “snooze you lose.” This is too important. Go to Parent Revolution’s website. Go to the top to Parent Trigger and click it. Then go to the bottom of the page to where is says Parent trigger rules and regs. Click it and it is empty. Why? Why not the Florida proposed Parent Trigger 15 page law? What about the video they financed lying about Florida? Nothing there. Why? Because then people would know. It is not easy to get them. I had to go to an aide who wrote the law to get them at the location. CDE lied to me twice on where to get them. Now I have them and when I put up my email address only three even asked. I say “Are You Kidding Me?” Everyone talks, no one knows. That’s education, is it? Even Ben Austin said that parents not using charters or any other thing like that and they could make up their own system is OK by the law. Is anyone telling you that? It is in the law, rules and regulations. Finally, after sending the law and an explanation like this to the L.A. Times and the board members we have the op ed in the Times and the board with a resolution no more triggers until the parent training on their options and verification of the legality of the signatures. Gee, why not in the first place? Now, rescind all the illegally approved Triggers.
You must know what you are talking about to beat the billionaires. Otherwise, they rightfully laugh at you.
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