Archives for the year of: 2013
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Protesting Co-Location of Charter School in Los Angeles

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
25

One of the worst of the corporate reform policies is co-locating privately-managed charter schools inside public school buildings. It creates fights over space and resources. It sets parent against parent. One school (the charter) gets preferential treatment. Often, the charter has a rich and powerful board of directors. Co-location–or charter school invasion–creates what some call academic apartheid, with two schools operating by different rules under the same roof, one with the best of everything, the other with leftovers and shrinking space.

In Los Angeles, parents and teachers are protesting a co-location at Boyle Heights Elementary School, which is celebrating its centennial year. More than 500 people showed up to protest.

This article shows how co-locations tear school communities part. When you realize that a school’s culture is an essential ingredient of its success, you understand that co-location stabs the school and the community in the heart.

Now that the LA school board has a new president and a new majority, maybe it will rein in the giveaway of public space to private corporations who make their own rules.

Categories Charter Schools, Los Angeles

Teacher: Predatory Uses of Data Endanger Children

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
25

This teacher blogger takes issue with the opinion article written by Kerrie Dallman, the president of the Colorado Education Association, supporting inBloom, a project of Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch.

She writes:

“Aside from your support of inBloom in Colorado and the glaring ethics and privacy issues the system poses, I have some real problems with your argument that teachers need inBloom as a “tool.”

“First, you claim that inBloom fixes the problem that teachers “don’t have enough time to truly personalize learning for every student to meet their individual needs.” Sure: teachers who log into 30 systems with different usernames and passwords each day (this really happens?) waste time. But the solution to that waste of time isn’t to consolidate confidential information about students into one database; it’s to reevaluate the overuse of data that you describe. After all, the best teachers in the world have been successful for hundreds of years without staring at test results and other flawed data on spreadsheets, and those teachers will continue to be successful whether the Gates Foundation gets its hands on children’s personal information or not. The idea that storing loads of statistical data about our children can “personalize learning” is counterintuitive, as the testing culture that accompanies corporate educational reform reduces students and teachers to numbers and depersonalizes the personal culture of learning teachers work so hard to achieve. As you note, “nothing can ever replace the instincts of a teacher.” Unfortunately, the people making decisions about education don’t trust the instincts of a teacher.”

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, On-Line Education, Technology, Computers

Pa Supt: State Funding Is Criminal Negligence

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
17

At a discussion of equity and excellence in education in Pennsylvania, John Sarandrea, the superintendent of the Néw Castle district, said:

“I don’t have any problems saying this, because it’s true: Poor kids are getting the shaft right now,” he said to loud applause from the audience.

“How can you possibly not invest in these children early, knowing what will be the outcome if you don’t?” Sarandrea wondered. “It’s negligence. It’s criminal.”

The state has cut nearly a billion dollars from the school budget in the past three years, while giving out corporate tax breaks and opening charter schools. The most successful charter operator–who manages the Chester Community Charter School–is Governor Corbett’s biggest campaign contributor. Vahan Gureghian has made millions managing and supplying his charter school. The local district, meanwhile, has gone bankrupt.

William Hite, the superintendent of the cash-starved Philadelphia district, said a new state funding formula was needed:

“He said any formula for distributing state aid should consider the number of students who live in poverty and are learning to speak English. Hite said Philadelphia has a larger share of those students than any other district in the state but has less money to spend to educate them.”

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Pennsylvania

Major DFER Leader Supports Spitzer

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
15

This is a twist. Boykin Curry, a major hedge fund manager and Wall Street power broker, sent out an email endorsing Eliot Spitzer, the disgraced ex-governor who is running for City Comptroller.

Curry was happy with Spitzer when he was governor because he was very supportive of charter schools.

Spitzer resigned the governorship after it was revealed that he paid prostitutes on numerous occasions. Now he is trying to make a political comeback by running for City Comptroller. His opponent, Scott Stringer, is Manhattan Borough President; Stringer appointed the brilliant, independent Patrick Sullivan to serve on the city’s board of education. The majority of the board is appointed by Mayor Bloomberg and acts as a rubber stamp. Sullivan usually is the only member who asks questions. Imagine that!

Curry is on the board of Democrats for Education Reform, a hedge fund group that raises big bucks to support politicians who want more charters; he is also on the board of Public Prep charters and the Alliance for School Choice.

Spitzer is not popular on Wall Street because he made his name by beating up on the financial industry.

But he is a reliable friend to charters.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats for Education Reform

Gary Rubinstein: Who Supports the Status Quo?

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
8

This is one of Gary Rubinstein’s best posts, wherein he challenges the new co-leader of Teach for America to give more thought to his facile reference to “the status quo.”

The post follows some tweets between Gary and Matt Kramer. Gary explains that those who disagree with TFA are not defending the status quo.

Gary writes:

“I could easily make a list of things that I’d like to change. I could bore you for hours about how I feel the math curriculum in this country and this world has evolved into something that leaves out the thing that makes math great — beauty. I could also very easily pick places where money is wasted on consultants and bad education software, and also places where not enough money is spent to do things right. But I’m called a status quo defender, still, just because I think that certain things should not be changed and that other things should not be changed, just for the sake of changing them, but until something that won’t make things worse is devised.

“So I am opposed to school closings. I can understand the allure of school closings — lighting a fire under the butts of the staff of a school (the ‘adults’ as reformers like to call them) to get their best work out of them. But I’m opposed to them because I feel they cause more harm than good. Is that why I’m a status quo defender? Because of all the things that I think should not be changed (just as ‘reformers have a host of things that should not be changed) this controversial practice is a new change that I do not embrace?

“I am opposed to using ‘value-added’ to judge teacher quality which, in turn, will get used to decide on pay increases and firings. I’m not convinced that a computer algorithm has been devised yet that can calculate what a group of thirty students ‘should’ get with an ‘average’ teacher on a poorly made state test. I’ve seen so many examples of a teacher getting wildly different results in consecutive years and even getting wildly different results in the same year when they teach two different grade levels to have any confidence in this golden calf of school reform.”

And he adds: “I don’t know of anyone in my camp who would say that we should do ‘nothing.’ And, yes, it is better to do nothing sometimes than to do something when that ‘something’ is likely to make matters worse.”

TFA, he points out, is deeply resistant to changing their own status quo.

Categories Class size, Closing schools, Teach for America TFA, Testing

How Choice Schools “Hitchhike” in Ohio

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
1

Ohio has a thriving choice sector, but neither vouchers nor charters have ever been approved by voters.

Legislators know that the public–nearly 90% in public schools–would not support funding vouchers or charters and never has. So they find clever ways to establish choice programs and fund them without asking the voters’ opinions. Currently, as the post below shows, legislators have figured out how to force voters in Columbus to share a new tax levy for charters.

Why are supporters of choice so fearful of the democratic process. If people really are clamoring to leave public schools, why not allow them to vote on how public money is allocated?

Bill Phillis wrote the following explanation of how choice programs hitchhike in Ohio. Bill, now retired, was Deputy Commissioner of Education during a time when the government of the state was determined to improve education, not to privatize it. If you want to join his mailing list, you may contact him at ohioeanda@sbcglobal.net

Bill Phillis writes:

“FY2014-FY2015 State Budget: Choice programs hitchhike again

July 24, 2013

Charter schools came into Ohio law by hitchhiking on a budget bill-same is true of vouchers. Choice programs have never been enacted in Ohio as stand-alone legislation. State officials have historically inserted controversial proposals in budget bills that would not pass on their own merit. The Ohio Constitution (Article II, section 12d) requires that bills constitute a single subject but this provision is frequently violated, particularly when there is little or no political balance in government.

The new “universal” voucher program in HB 59 most likely would not have passed if it had been introduced separately. Remember HB 136-a “universal” voucher bill introduced in the 129th General Assembly? It was stopped amid public opposition. Over 400 boards of education passed resolutions of opposition to HB 136.

HB 167 (The Columbus Plan) is another example of choice hitchhiking. This enactment requires the Columbus Board of Education to put a levy on the ballot in November, the proceeds of which would be shared with charter schools. A Columbus school board member proposed that the levy proposal be bifurcated so as to allow Columbus School District residents to vote on the charter school funding piece separately-rather than hitchhiking on the Columbus District levy. The powers-that-be said “NO”, it is a package.

What is the problem with allowing Columbus school patrons to vote specifically on the charter school funding issue? The answer seems clear-it wouldn’t pass. Citizens should have the right to vote on each issue. Charter schools, unless sponsored by a school district, are not a part of the public common school system; thus, a local tax levy for charter schools should be a separate proposal. Local school district revenue is already shared with charter schools inasmuch as, on average, the per pupil charter school deductions are nearly twice the average state payments per pupil to school districts.

Citizens need to challenge the decisions of their elected representatives. The Columbus school board member should be commended for raising the issue of a separate vote.

William Phillis
Ohio E & A

Ohio E & A | 100 S. 3rd Street | Columbus | OH | 43215

Categories Charter Schools, Ohio, Vouchers

Why Did the U.S. Department of Education Abandon Student Privacy Rights?

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
29

In 2009 and again in 2011, the U.S. Department of Education changed the regulations in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), making it easier for third parties to gain access to private information about students.

The DOE is being sued by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on behalf of student privacy. Arguments will be presented on July 24 in federal district court.

“EPIC is challenging recent changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) that allow the release of student records for non-academic purposes and undercut parental consent provisions.”

At bottom, this is about Arne Duncan’s desire to clear the way for inBloom, the $100 million Gates-Carnegie-Murdoch project to collect personal student data and make it available to vendors for commercial uses.

Categories Duncan, Arne, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Privacy and Privacy Rights

Newark’s Teachers’ Village: Your Tax Dollars at Work for TFA

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
10

Jersey Jazzman reports in excruciating detail about Teach for America’s bold plan to expand in New Jersey, which seems to happen most often in states with rightwing governors and/or legislatures.

Their expansion is linked with a $150 million development in Newark that will build three new charter schools and provide low-rent housing for their teachers. One of the major backers is Goldman Sachs, whose chairman attended the groundbreaking.

The project is funded mainly by tax credits. JJ says, “$100 million in tax credits; not too shabby. If anyone tries to convince you that billionaires are interested in charter schools solely out of altruism, point them to this project.”

And more:

“There’s been plenty written about how TFA has become a political organization. But I suspect it’s also poised to become a power broker in the brave new world of 21st Century urban development. Cities used to have to put together marketing campaigns and development plans to start gentrifying neighborhoods. Now, they just have to give TFA a call, and the yuppies will come rolling in. And it’s all paid for with public monies. Everyone cool with that?”

Categories New Jersey, Teach for America TFA

A New Film That Celebrates the Success of Public Schools

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
18

In this essay, Peter Dreier contrasts the films of the corporate reformers with a new film that shows the struggles, challenges, and successes of an American public school.

Dreier usefully follows the money behind the corporate-funded films “Waiting for Superman” and “Won’t Back Down.” The common link between them is Walden Media, owned by arch-reactionary Philip Anschutz.

Dreier writes:

“It is no accident that both films promote similar themes. Both were produced by Walden Media, which is owned by Phil Anschutz, a right-wing businessman who owns two of the nation’s premier conservative publications (the Weekly Standard and the Washington Examiner) and whose foundation has donated $210,000 to the antiunion National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund. Anschutz is also a backer of Americans for Prosperity, the political war chest founded by the right-wing Koch brothers and has donated to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who has made dismantling labor unions a key part of his policy agenda. Anschutz also spent $10,000 in 1992 to promote Colorado’s Proposition 2, which let private property owners discriminate against gays and lesbians, $150,000 to the Mission America Foundation, which condemns homosexuality as “deviance,” and $70,000 to the Discovery Institute, which attacks the idea of evolution and proclaims that “Darwinism is false.”

Bill Gates was featured in the “Superman” film, donated at least $2 million to promote it.

But now comes a response to these efforts to destroy a basic democratic institution. As Dreier writes:

“Go Public: A Day in the Life of an American School District, by veteran documentary filmmakers Jim and Dawn O’Keeffe, is a welcome antidote to the bleak and misleading message of Waiting for Superman and Won’t Back Down. Go Public celebrates public schools without ignoring their troubles. It follows 50 people in 28 schools – teachers, students, parents, a school board member, principals, a baseball coach, librarians, a school psychologist, volunteers, and the district superintendent – during one day (May 8, 2012), from the time they wake up until the time they go to bed.”

And more:

“The result of the O’Keeffes’ effort is a remarkable 90-minute film that examines the daily realities of an urban public school system – the Pasadena (California) Unified School District (PUSD), where two-thirds of the 18,000 students come from low-income families, where many parents are jobless, where many students live in homes where Spanish is the first (and in some cases only) language, and in a state where per-student funding ranks 47th in the country.

“Go Public celebrates the small and large miracles that happen in PUSD classrooms every day. We see overcrowded classrooms, but we also see an elementary teacher who greets each student with a special word of support as he or she arrives in her classroom.

“The film shows us students participating in a pioneering middle-school robotics program. An elementary school teacher gets students excited about science by explaining how blood flows through arteries that keep their hearts beating. A music teacher instructs a jazz band at a high school where parents have to hold fund-raisers to pay for instruments. An elementary school teacher instructs students to play part of the Brandenburg concerto on their violins.

“We see a teacher patiently, persistently and lovingly instruct students with autism and Down’s syndrome. Special needs students, who require smaller classrooms and specially-trained teachers, but whose cost is not fully reimbursed by the state government, comprise a significant portion of PUSD’s student body.”

“Go Public” will be screened on Friday July 26 at All Saint’s Church in Pasadena.

Wouldn’t it be a miracle if Bill Gates put $2 million into promoting this film?

The counter-revolution has begun. Truth will defeat lies and propaganda, even billionaires.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Support for public schools

Louisiana Will Test 3- and 4-Year Olds

By dianeravitch
July 24, 2013 //
46

Louisiana will begin testing large numbers of preschool children this fall to determine their academic readiness.

If they are found to be not ready, it is not clear who will be held accountable: their teachers? Their families?

“The goal, they say, is to create a grading system like the current School Performance Score reports for public elementary and secondary schools, which are ranked for student performance on standardized tests and progress made from year to year.

“But whether pre-schools will be rewarded for academic progress, or sanctioned for lack of it, like elementary and secondary schools are, remains to be seen.”

John White says that testing toddlers will promote equity.

Categories Childhood, Pre-K, K, Louisiana, Testing
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