The students chanted “Philly is a union town! The SRC has got to go! Save our schools!”
Watch it and feel good about the future.
The students disrupted the showing of the anti-union, pro-charter, anti-public school film “Won’t Back Down,” which was produced by Walden Media. Walden Media also produced “Waiting for Superman.” It is owned by Philip Anschutz, a rightwing billionaire who has many corporate interests, including the nation’s largest film chain and a fracking business. Odd that the School Reform Commission was showing that particular film, which was a total bomb when it was released commercially. The union is evil in this film, and a teacher and parent combine to use the parent trigger to convert their public school into a charter school.
The Philadelphia Student Union held a demonstration in support of their underfunded, beleaguered schools and their teachers, whose contract was summarily terminated by the SRC. According to this story, a member of the School Reform Commission–the state-appointed board that runs the schools–shouted at the students that they should be in jail, that they probably go to failing schools. Wow.
Meanwhile, the SRC screened the anti-public school, pro-charter propaganda film “Won’t Back Down” as part of Parent Appreciation Night. The film, produced by rightwing billionaire Philip Anschutz, depicts a parent and a teacher using the parent trigger to turn their public school over to a charter operator. The teachers’ union is portrayed in the film as the bad guys. Not only was Anschutz a producer of “Waiting for Superman,” he is a major player in the fracking industry, which is huge in Pennsylvania. He doesn’t like unions or public education. “Won’t Back Down” was a total bomb when it was released a few years ago. It disappeared from the nation’s screens within 30 days with the worst box office of any national film in decades. Funny that the SRC disinterred this stinker to show appreciation for parents.
According to the story:
“Things turned ugly when members of Philadelphia Student Union interrupted a film screening at the School District of Philadelphia’s headquarters with School Reform Commissioner Sylvia Simms.
“In a video posted on YouTube, Simms began shouting at students sitting-in on the screening of “Won’t Back Down,” chanting, “SOS, save our schools,” and, “Philly is a union town.” While in the video there is too much noise to make out what Simms said, students reported that the SRC commissioner told them, “you all probably go to failing schools,” and, “you belong in jail.”
The charter industry is stunned by the possibility that Massachusetts may not authorize any new charters this year. This would be the first time in 15 years that no new charters were opened.
“Proponents say the move represents another blow in their quest to open more charter schools across the state. It comes just three months after the state Senate overwhelmingly rejected an increase in the number of charter schools that can operate in low-performing districts.”
Charters were stopped in Brockton and Fitchburg because the law says that they should open only in districts that are in the bottom 10% on state tests. Neither district is in the bottom 10%.
“Created under the 1993 Education Reform Act, charter schools are intended to be laboratories of educational innovation. They operate under looser state regulations than traditional schools and are rarely unionized.
“Seventy operate independently of local school systems, while 10 others operate in partnership with a school district.
“Many charter schools have among the highest MCAS scores, but some struggle academically and more than a dozen have closed, typically because of low test scores or financial problems.
“The move last week delighted charter school opponents, who argue that such institutions drain funding from traditional school systems and cherry pick students, assertions that proponents dispute.”
“While the effort to add more independent charter school proposals appears stymied, the state continues to review three other proposals for charter schools that would operate in partnership with the Boston, Salem, and Springfield school systems.
“Many charter school proponents, however, consider these “in-district charters “ to be less ideal than independent schools because they employ unionized teachers and are often subject to districtwide policies, restricting their autonomy.”
In other words, the charters were offered the chance to open but refused because they would have to have a union staff and some regulation, perhaps limiting their ability to exclude students they don’t want.
The Milwaukee Common Council passed an ordnance prohibiting the use of bribes to induce students to enroll in charter or voucher schools.
Despite the frequent boasting about “long waiting lists,” it turns out that many of these non-public schools have trouble filling their seats. Public schools are not allowed to offer cash prizes or gifts for enrolling, but privately managed schools were offering cash and other inducements to boost their numbers and get state money.
The ordinance that “the Common Council approved Tuesday also recommends the city’s lobbyists push for a statewide ban on the practice, which independent charter schools, private voucher schools and even day care centers have quietly used — in some cases for years — to boost enrollment numbers.
“Enrollment is the lifeblood for schools that rely on public funding because it guarantees a certain amount of per-pupil dollars from the state.”
Brace yourself for a flurry of statements about how testing is out of hand, and we have to be careful. We need more transparency. We need accountability about accountability. That’s more or less what the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Council of Great City Schools said. Add the allegedly progressive Center for American Progress. What they did not say is that the testing mania is out of control. That the need to pump billions into the coffers of Pearson and McGraw-Hill is insatiable. That parents and educators are sick of the testing overload. That it is time to say, “Enough is enough.”
Behind both statements is a desire to protect the Common Core assessments. All of these organizations are funded by the Gates Foundation, and they are not about to align with Fairtest.
What the “leaders” refuse to see is that their followers are way ahead of them. Parents and educators don’t want higher-quality tests (that unicorn, that elusive mermaid). They want a moratorium on testing. They want the beatings to stop.
CCSSO and the other members of the Beltway establishment refuse to see that we are the over tested nation in the world; that a dozen years of testing have left educators demoralized, children graded like cuts of meat, thousands of schools closed, and urban communities devastated, their public schools closed and privatized by test scores.
There is a revolution brewing on the ground against this testing madness. It is time for the leaders to get outside DC and talk to teachers and parents. Or get out of the way.
Julian Vasquez Heilig has studied Teach for America and its effects, and has come to the conclusion that the organization is harming the future of the teaching profession by its grandiose and false claims.
It has raised well over a billion dollars to support a large and handsomely paid staff. Its recruits will go to classrooms where students need experienced teachers, not five-week trainees. And 80% will leave the classroom in 2-3 years.
I this post, he is in dialogue with historian Jack Schneider.
Heilig writes:
“TFA is an example of a solution being a part of the problem. Our current national teacher strategy in the U.S. can be likened to taking a plate of pasta and throwing it against the ceiling and seeing what sticks. Teach For America, with its high-levels of attrition out of the classroom after the two year temporary commitment exacerbates this issue for poor students.
“We know from the data that about 50% of traditionally trained teachers remain in the profession after five years. By comparison, previous research on TFA has demonstrated that their attrition rate out the classroom to greener pastures (Note: I did not say in the “field” of education, a phrase TFA likes to use—meaning that corps members have left teaching and gone to graduate school, have begun working for an education-oriented foundation, etc.) is around 80%, though it varies by community.
“The falling spaghetti is not just Teach For America. Almost 60% of all new teachers in Texas are alternatively certified teachers, which means they could have as little as 30 hours of training online before they enter the classroom. Alternatively certified teachers also have higher rates of attrition out of the classroom compared to traditionally trained teachers.
“Our strategy in the U.S. is to send the least qualified teachers to the classroom as quickly as possible. Thus, the falling temporary teacher approach is essentially the antithesis of the national teacher strategies employed by the countries with the world’s leading educational systems.”
The fact is that we need a well-prepared teacher corps. We need experienced teachers. What we do not need is the illusion that TFA can change our schools by sending in inexperienced teachers who leave after 2-3 years. That’s a hoax.
For years, I used to see this graffiti in the New York City subways and on random walls: “Question authority.”
This is the message from Yong Zhao, who was born and educated in China and now is a professor at the University of Oregon.
In this post, EduShyster interviews Zhao about his new book, “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? Why China Has the Best (and the Worst) Education System.
She questions his views about testing, PISA, and the future of education reform.
Yong Zhao is refreshingly candid. He thinks America became a great nation because it did not put too much emphasis on standardized testing.
Standardized testing, he argues, is synonymous with authoritarianism. It kills the creativity, the divergent thinking, the skeptical mindset that is necessary for entrepreneurialism and innovation.
He says it is not too late to change, not too late to escape “the witch that cannot be killed.”
Angie Sullivan is a teacher who regularly emails a long list of legislators, education advocates, journalists….and me. Here is her outraged commentary about Democrats who collect money from teachers and betray them and refuse to fund public schools. And her outrage at her own state union for supporting Democrats who don’t support public education. In many other states, the Democrats act no different from Republicans in their fealty to privatization and high-stakes testing. See New York and Connecticut as examples.
I think it is time for CCEA [Carson County Education Association] to pull away from NSEA, the state. This political endorsement process is very tragic. I have never seen such a mess and so many bad decisions on too many levels to even speak about here.
To me it was a simple year – no TEI [The Education Initiative] – no endorsement, no money. Doesn’t have to mean we are not friends – just have to focus on TEI.
That would mean NO to almost everyone except about 5 people.
So Oct 10th my union gave $10,000 to Justin Jones to keep the Nevada Senate Democratic? Surely we could NOT have given it to Justin based on his education voting record or actually doing anything productive for public schools.
If I thought the Nevada Senate Democrats would act like this:
I would be the yellow dog democrat Ive been my whole life. Straight ticket. But the abuse I have received over the last few years has opened my eyes to just how sick my party and union can be.
Justin is no good as an education candidate. The End.
I have begged and pleaded with my union and others to stop rewarding democrats and any others “because the other side is so much worse”.
What could be worse than ALEC legislation?
What could be worse than championing privatizing by charter?
What could be worse than loss in pay, benefits, and retirement?
What could be worse than threatening teachers like we are dogs?
What could be worse than no funds, no revenue, no plans to fund?
What could be worse than not supporting the TEI? In fact campaigning — by strategy — to do the opposite?
I’m supposed to be frightened by vouchers? Parent Trigger co-sponsored by Jones is worse than vouchers. Parents voting to kill their neighborhood schools?
Why do we insist on rewarding this bad behavior? In case Justin Jones wins, he does what to us next? Carry out his threats to “do something about evaluations”?
I have to put up with that.
What kind of favor does Jones deserve taking $10,000 from my union and $10,000 from Students First too? Both?
Who gave him this NSEA money? A committee who votes for endorsements as a clump? Murillo? Does Ruben get special favor from Justin Jones for himself?
Have we asked the members?
So Jones gets the money and to publish we love him . . . but the voter flyer excludes his name? So he got halfway endorsed? We gave him money but do not encourage anyone to vote for him. ok.
And what about all the candidates who we denied – because they wouldn’t be positive about TEI? What do they think when we give money now . . . to those with some mysterious perceived power?
CCEA needs to have more power and control over government relations in the south. The tail needs to stop wagging the dog and the dog needs to stop hiding in Carson City. And if a candidate from any party brings ALEC education reform or votes against us – we need to kick them out.
These education democrats like Justin Jones are not real – they need to be ousted from our endorsements. DFER (Democrats for Education Reform) are simply conservative democrats pushing a privatizing agenda on public schools. They are worse than a Republican — because they have infiltrated, bribed, and been bought privatizing reformers.
Proud to have a child in a charter – and trying to pass this as a democratic value?
Someone needs to get some backbone and stand up to these privatizing democratic bullies – because kids deserve advocacy – and a lot better endorsement system than this willy nilly NSEA parade – what a nightmare.
Nevada has one of the most underfunded and inequitably funded school systems in the nation. Nevada has a ballot measure, called “The Education Initiative,” or TEI, to raise money for the schools. Guess who is opposed to it?
“BIG BUSINESS FIGHTS NEVADA BALLOT INITIATIVE: Nevada businesses have poured more than $2 million into defeating an initiative on the November ballot that would tax businesses to raise an estimated $700 million a year for public education. The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and the Nevada Resort Association are among the biggest opponents of the initiative, called Question 3. The tax would apply to businesses with more than one million dollars in revenue each year and it would apply a 2 percent tax to a portion of the businesses’ revenue.
“- The Nevada AFL-CIO was initially a sponsor of Question 3 – but dropped its support. The union cited concerns that it could cost members their jobs and raise the cost of living in the state when it voted to not support the initiative [http://bit.ly/ZoNAFt ]. The Nevada State Education Association is the initiative’s other sponsor. NSEA – which collected nearly 150,000 signatures to put Question 3 on the ballot – argues that the funds can be used to reduce class sizes, purchase technology for the classroom and make other improvements to Nevada schools. Supporters had raised over $1 million to support Question 3 as of the most recent filing deadline, and total spending on both sides is expected to be significantly higher. More from the Star-Telegram: http://bit.ly/1vodMhi.”
He retained the fierce loyalty of business and civic leaders, but alienated teachers and parents. His flubs of key technology projects made his position untenable.
Blume reports that former superintendent Ramon Cortines is likely to be the interim superintendent. Cortines, 82, has served twice before as leader of the L.A. Schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 