Archives for the month of: February, 2014
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The Vergara Case and Other People’s Children: A Teacher’s View

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2014 //
31

The Vergara trial in Los Angeles prompted this National Board Certified Teacher to reflect on the power dynamics in LAUSD. And how it affects the students. The trial is funded by a very wealthy tech entrepreneur whose legal team claims that due process rights for teachers denies the civil rights of minority students because it is harder to fire teachers if they get a hearing. Superintendent John Deasy testified for the plaintiffs who are suing his districts because he says he can’t fire ineffective teachers.

The classroom teacher wrote this commentary on the trial and the issues:

“The Vergara case is truly the epicenter of everything wrong with the direction of American public education.

“Sorry in advance for this long post, but this case connects a lot of dots…from my classroom in Los Angeles…to Wall Street…to The White House.

“The words in this case are twisted in Orwellian ways, where a term like “Civil Rights” gets to be used by the oppressors instead of those trying to liberate kids from their dictums.

“Teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District is an exercise in futility these days. Watching this court case unfold with its Trojan Horse arguments about the best education for students is like hearing the 1% argue that what the financial system needs is less regulation so that the poor people of the country can be free to achieve their American Dream.

“Their words are all about “liberty” and “justice” and “equality”, but it is obvious who reaps the benefits of those terms.

“It is no coincidence that our District Superintendent John Deasy, was the first witness called to testify against the teachers of his own district.

“He knew that he had the backing of the very rich benefactors who have paved his life in education. He keeps winning because there is no realistic way to challenge his authority.

“The Editorial Board of the LA TIMES, like the Editorial Boards of papers like The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune are enamored by this sort of superintendent–a man who is brought in to kick teachers’ whining butts and bring up test scores. The cosmetic nature of HOW they do it is apparent to anyone who looks at it.

“They have lowered graduation requirements and (as in our school) have brought in empty BS “Advisory” classes that the kids can get full credit for attending (that’s 40 additional credits after four years!!!) so that graduation rates can be boosted. No one is going to do an in depth analysis of this because the public wants results! Arne Duncan can give a big hooray for Deasy and company because the graduation figures are going up! Numbers don’t lie!

“Are our kids “smarter” because John Deasy is our superintendent? No. The pedagogy that Deasy believes in is small-minded and literal. If a teacher in LA is doing great things in his or her classroom, the chances are it’s IN SPITE of the District, not because of it. The only true education emphasis that Deasy champions is the same one that most of the 1% from Bill Gates to Barack Obama to Arne Duncan adhere to: Get the most kids through the education factory they oversee (and often profit from) towards the goal of making them somewhat competent in the world to not go out and steal. It is a very low bar. Very few schools and administrations treat education as a mind-blowing, explosive and subversive experience. That would be about the last thing on John Deasy’s agenda.

“For Deasy and those who back him, Education is defined by them alone, using their own, limited metrics about what they think constitutes “education”.

“For Deasy’s system, creative teaching is seen only as an added bonus–not a primary function. If it happens, great, but it is not the most important aspect of education. Creativity and the emphasis on a critical understanding of the world is not the thing the system values most. Deasy, Duncan, Gates and Pearson value kids responding to its metrics. Actually, if those metrics are achieved, then the Education System says the “product” is successfully educated.

“The truth is that the System will NEVER get the results from this urban population of kids (or for most others either) because they neglect to deal with a variety of factors: Poverty, environment, lack of parental wherewithal, economic forces that dictate a certain path for the working class that Deasy oversees.

“But Deasy’s route to “success” was vastly different from that likely of the students he oversees. In fact, ironically, his path was much more “American” in its orchestration of how the country actually works: Inheritance, privilege and obsequiousness. Although most people are tired of hearing about Deasy’s PhD “controversy” (http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2008/10/prince_georges_says_goodbye_to.html) it is always worth remembering because it is a perfect metaphor for how Deasy has always gotten his way throughout his entire education life. With the tremendous support of a financial power structure that has bolstered his career from Day One, Deasy has been the beneficiary of those whose interests he promotes. First it was the financial interests of billionaires Bill Gates and later Eli Broad which morph conveniently into the political interests of the neo-liberal Democrat agenda.

“Brought in and imposed upon the city by former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Deasy consolidated his support by having Eli Broad pony up millions into LAUSD to “buy” support for him. Deasy has enjoyed the unfaltering support of The United Way, the Chamber of Commerce, multi-millionaire Jamie Alter-Lynton’s LA SCHOOL REPORT and The LA Times…behind these entities are all men and women of great wealth who have thrown their considerable influence backing Deasy’s “Reform” Agenda but do not send their own kids to LAUSD. Our current Mayor Eric Garcetti is a product of the UCLA Lab School and the tony Harvard Westlake Prep (as Mayor Emmanuel sends his kids to University of Chicago Lab where the Obama kids also attended).

“No matter.

“Like many other inner cities with very separate education agendas for other people’s children, these socially-liberal Titans of LA Power pull the strings for a school system that is both racist and classist. The type of education that Deasy prescribes for the kids of LAUSD would never go over in his former school district of Santa Monica. Educated, mostly white and financially secure parents would not tolerate the low bar for their own kids. They would not tolerate the class size that our students endure and are supposed to “buck up” and learn in, nor the pitiful lack of electives, art, drama or field trip opportunities.

“As for LAUSD teachers? Most suffer in silence. Our system’s teachers are cowed and intimidated. Where do they look for support? How did they become the enemy? Hundreds of teachers in “jail” in LA. Deasy gets a 91% disapproval rating from the very people he leads and it doesn’t garner a shrug. Imagine if the Secretary of Defense got that rating from the troops or any municipal Police Chief from the officers on the street? There would be calls for firing immediately, but teachers are demonized and can be ignored. Everyone from Obama to Bill Gates to Arne Duncan gives lip service to “WE LOVE TEACHERS!” but it is in much the same way as Colonel Sanders LOVES his chickens.

“Only a neo-liberal, corporatist agenda could get a piece of agitprop like the anti-union teacher film WON’T BACK DOWN at the last Democratic Convention. Wall Street loves people like Arne Duncan and John Deasy and Barack Obama. No matter that these people never had any experience in public urban education before they rose to power, they have sought to undermine teachers and student opportunities at every level.

“They have no shame of putting my students in a real-life movie that actually SUBVERTS their interests. They will back law suits like Vergara v. California stating its “for the kids”. Deasy will claim that his teachers are the problem, instead of the social issues that hold students’ lives in their sway. Ghastly, Deasy then claims that its HIS OWN self-serving, self-aggrandizing, self-benefiting educational policies (and those of Gates, Broad, Pearson, et. al) that are the life preservers for the kids.

“Our kids are afloat in a desperate sea and the “rescue” ship they send is manned by cannibals.

“The LAUSD School Board is a feckless lot. It is too much inside baseball to go into the individual psychologies of the seven members. Suffice to say they read the newspapers and are always VERY concerned how they appear to the editorial boards who keep them in line. Education is political and its big business. To say otherwise is ignorant at best and downright disingenuous at worst. I do not hold out much hope for this sorry lot because they are all in over their heads.

“Without rehashing the iPad story, LA’s citizens got upset because they saw it as a ridiculous waste of their money–while teachers saw it as horrifying waste of resources and priorities. We were told by our leader, Deasy, that iPads were a Civil Rights issue which was met with universal derision. We are now forced to figure out some way of threading the needle of asking the public to actually give MORE to public education which actually IS a Civil Rights issue, but it has been polluted by Deasy’s “version” of Civil Rights. When our own district stabs us in the back, undercutting our desire to make the public understand what the system truly needs, then what hope do we have to actually do right by our kids?

“John Deasy, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and Barack Obama have miserably failed all urban kids. Their education is a disaster for my students. But the people who have the influence and power to change it don’t realize it (charitably?) or they simply BELIEVE the “philanthropists” when they say something is true and necessary because they also NEED those people for their political survival. And they get their backing because they back them. And so on and so on and so on….

“To connect the dots even further in this depressing spirit, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) has announced that Bill Gates will be a keynote speaker at their 2014 Teaching and Learning conference next month. As a National Board teacher, I am horrified by this entity that is supposed to recognize the excellence in teaching is becoming just a shill front. Education is political and the National Board steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the destruction of public education. In fact, Gates has given so much money to this organization that it has created a toxic influence in the organization, reducing the “reliability” of what National Board constitutes great teaching.

“My disenfranchised classroom loses out simply because we can’t buy our way into a seat at the table.

“My kids can’t “buy” their way into a PhD.

“My kids have to accept what Deasy and The LA Times tells them is necessary for them.

“Who is our court of appeal in this system?

“Vergara v. California is the rich’s power grab. American public education is on trial not by “the people” but by the oligarchs who use it as a punching board to misdirect the culpability of many of these elites in creating the societal pathologies these kids navigate everyday.

“The true enemy of the nine students whose names are cynically being used in the suit are not their teachers–but those who exploit their desire for a true education–and will replace their trust with fat bank accounts in someone else’s name at a desk very far away (and with a much better window view) than theirs at the school’s they originally came from.”

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Broad Foundation, California, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Education Reform, Graduation rates, Los Angeles, Students

Help These Kids Go to Finland!

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2014 //
15

A friend passed along this email.

What an awesome threesome!

The Boston Consulting Group (whose reports always recommend privatization, as in Philadelphia); the Harvard Business School; and the Gates Foundation.

Lots of bright young men and women, probably graduates of our finest private schools. They will redesign public education for other people’s children. They need some good ideas.

I propose they take a field trip to Finland. There they will see happy, healthy children; no standardized testing; strong academic and vocational-technical programs; and a well-prepared, highly respected teaching profession.

What are the metrics? That will be their challenge!

Time for fresh thinking! Time to break the mold! Abandon the status quo of high-stakes testing and privatization!

Here goes:

“As part of an effort to improve the competitiveness of the United States, BCG has partnered with Harvard Business School and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to bring business and education leaders together to better understand how they can collaborate and transform America’s PK-12 education system.

“The BCG-Gates-HBS PK-12 research focuses on best practices for partnerships between business leaders and educators to accelerate improvement in America’s schools. The research has identified three high-leverage ways in which business leaders can engage with educators to bring about significant change for the better:

* Laying the policy foundations for education innovation
* Scaling up proven innovations that boost student outcomes
* Reinventing the local education ecosystem in cities and regions

“It is our pleasure to share with you two joint research reports on these important topics. We hope the first report, Lasting Impact: A Business Leader’s Playbook for Supporting America’s Schools, will inspire business and education leaders to work together on the urgent task of transforming the nation’s education system. The second report, Partial Credit: How America’s School Superintendents See Business as a Partner, summarizes the findings of a nationwide survey of school superintendents on business’s role in education.

“In 2014, we aim to spur action on many of the ideas that have been captured in the research so far. We welcome your thoughts and input on the material.

Best regards,

J. Puckett
Leader, Global Education Practice Tyce Henry
Principal
Nithya Vaduganathan
Principal

The Boston Consulting Group”

Categories Boston Consulting Group, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, For-Profit, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates

New York: Time for Accountability for State Board of Regents

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2014 //
14

The New York Regents have embraced the Common Core standards and testing with the fervor of zealots.

They brook no opposition, and they only pretend to listen to critics.

Only two Regents, Kathleen Cashin and Betty Rosa, both of whom are experienced educators, have consistently and publicly dissented from the Regents’ failed agenda.

The Regents are appointed by the New York Legislature, which in practice means the State Assembly, which is controlled by the Democratic Party.

Theoretically, the Regents each serve a five-year term, but in practice the members get reappointed if they wish to be reappointed.

The terms of four Regents are expiring this year, and the Assembly has the opportunity to appoint four new members, four people who have not been insulated from public opinion, four people who have some sense of what parents and the public are thinking, four people who recognize that public schools belong to the public, not to the Regents nor to Pearson nor the U.S. Department of Education.

The question: Will the Assembly have the wisdom to appoint new Regents or will it stick with the failed status quo?

Will the Assembly have the wisdom to add parents and citizens who are prepared to think anew about the needs of the children and public schools of New York State?

The implementation of the Common Core standards and testing was a disaster, as everyone acknowledges, including Governor Cuomo (who is also a fervent supporter of the Common Core) and the leaders of the Legislature, who threatened to take action if the Regents did not.

The Regents assembled a committee, which made cosmetic recommendations but did nothing to assuage the concerns of the public. It did nothing to reduce the high-stakes testing or to review the standards themselves. The committee recommended that the CC standards be reviewed by the original authors– the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School Officers, Achieve, and David Coleman’s Student Achievement Partners. Of course, the original writing group no longer exists, and there is no process in place to review the standards, not in D.C. nor anywhere else.

And that is the problem with the standards. They were handed down from Mount Olympus, as though the gods had written them in stone and they could not be changed by mere mortals. Not field-tested; no early childhood education experts; no one knowledgeable about the needs of children with disabilities. And the crowning insult: the “national standards” were copyrighted by the NGA and CCSSO. Have you ever heard of national standards that were copyrighted? I have not.

The standards will fail utterly if the Regents stick to their present course because the Regents cannot indefinitely ignore public opinion.

At every public meeting (except for one in Brooklyn that was packed by supporters of Michelle Rhee’s StudentsFirst), thousands of parents expressed outrage about the standards and the testing.

What is needed now is clear:

First, the standards should be carefully reviewed by New York teachers who have been nominated by their superintendents as experts in teaching and learning, including teachers of the early grades and teachers of students with disabilities, as well as teachers of ELA and mathematics. They should be encouraged to revise wherever it is necessary.

Second, the standards should be decoupled from state testing. The state should offer standardized testing in fourth and eighth grades, as it did for many years, to gauge student progress.

Third, teacher evaluation should be tied to peer assistance and review, by peers and supervisors, with help for those teachers who need help.

But to make such significant changes, the Regents themselves must change. They cannot cling blindly to a failed status quo. By their actions and by their inaction, they are fomenting a parent rebellion.

And if the Legislature does not take heed and change the composition of the Regents, bringing in four new members dedicated to children and not to the current agenda, the people will remember in November.

Categories Common Core, New York

Berliner and Glass: A Great New Book Exposes the Myths and Lies About US Education

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2014 //
8
A New Book Just for You

 

ANNOUNCING—An Important New Book by
David C. Berliner, Gene V Glass, and Associates

Special Pre-publication Discount!
Use coupon code 50MYTHS2014
“50 Myths and Lies is a powerful defense of public education…. It is a timely and hard-hitting book of scholarly but passionate polemic.”
—Jonathan Kozol

“What do you get when two world-class scholars and a team of talented analysts take a hard look at 50 widely held, yet unsound beliefs about U.S. public schools? Well, in this instance you get a flat-out masterpiece!”
—W. James Popham

“Anyone involved in making decisions about today’s schools should read this book.”
—Linda Darling-Hammond

“Whether you agree or disagree with this book, if you care about the future of public education, you mustn’t ignore it.”
—Andy Hargreaves

Two of the most respected voices in education and a team of young education scholars identify 50 myths and lies that threaten America’s public schools. With hard-hitting information and a touch of comic relief, Berliner, Glass, and their associates separate fact from fiction in this comprehensive look at modern education reform. They explain how the mythical failure of public education has been created and perpetuated in large part by political and economic interests who stand to gain from its destruction.

 

They expose a rapidly expanding variety of organizations and media that intentionally misrepresent facts. Many of these organizations also name themselves to suggest that their goal is unbiased service in the public interest when, in fact, they represent narrow political and financial interests. Where appropriate, the authors name the promoters of these deceptions and point out how their interests are served by encouraging false beliefs.

 

This provocative book features short essays on important topics to provide every elected representative, school administrator, school board member, teacher, parent, and concerned citizen with much food for thought, as well as reliable knowledge from authoritative sources.

 

Book Sections:

I.     Myths, Hoaxes, and Outright Lies

II.   Myths and Lies About Who’s Best: Charters, Privates, Maybe Finland?

III.  Myths and Lies About Teachers and the Teaching Profession: Teachers Are “Everything,” That’s Why We Blame Them and Their Unions

IV.   Myths and Lies About How to Make Our Nation’s School Better

V.    Myths and Lies About How Our Nation’s Schools Are Paid For: All Schools Are Equal, but Some Are More Equal Than Others

VI.   Myths and Lies About Making All Students Career and College Ready

 

David C. Berliner is an educational psychologist and bestselling author. He was professor and Dean of the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education. Gene V Glass is a senior researcher at the National Education Policy Center and a research professor in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. Their Associates are the hand-picked leading PhDs and PhDs in training from their respective institutions.

 

Categories Accountability, Teachers and Teaching, U.S. education

Beardsley: New York’s Teacher Evaluation System Is Useless

By dianeravitch
February 25, 2014 //
4

Noted VAM expert Audrey Amrein-Beardsley explains why New York’s teacher evaluation system doesn’t work and why the release of results has been delayed:

She writes:

“One of the biggest drawbacks of such teacher evaluation systems is that they have literally no instrumental value; that is, no states across the country have yet figured out how to use these data for instrumental or change-based purposes, to inform the betterment of schools, teacher quality, and most importantly students’ learning and achievement, and no states yet have plans to make these data useful. These systems are 100% about accountability and a symbolic accountability more accurately that, again, has little to no instrumental value. No peer-reviewed studies, for example, have demonstrated that having these data actually improves, not to mention does much of anything for schools, since such data systems have been implemented. This is largely due to a lack of transparency in these systems, high levels of confusion when practitioners try to consume and use these data (many times because the data reported are far removed from the realities and content particulars they teach), and issues like this. Oftentimes, by the time teachers get their evaluation reports, students are well on their way in subsequent grades, and in this case almost onto two grade levels later.”

Categories New York, Teacher Evaluations

This Friday: Privacy Hearings in Manhattan: inBloom Will Testify

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2014 //
19

The New York City parent blog reports that there will be Legislative hearings this Friday in lower Manhattan on student privacy, a matter of great concerns to parents (and grandparents!).

“The hearings will take place Friday, Feb. 28 at 10:30 AM at 250 Broadway in Lower Manhattan; livestream here.  More info and a form you can fill out if you want  to testify is here.  See also the RT video interview from NYC parent activist Karen Sprowal on why she opposes inBloom and feels it will put at risk her child’s privacy and security on our blog below; please also sign the MoveOn petition to stop inBloom in New York state here. “

Despite massive objections from parents, New York is the only state that plans to hand over confidential student information to inBloom, which was funded by the Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation, and will be managed by Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless Generation and Amplify.

No one has ever offered a satisfactory explanation about why the federal government, the state, and vendors need 400 data points about every child.

Show up; testify; raise your voice.

Don’t let them have the data about your child.

 

 

Categories New York, Privacy and Privacy Rights, Students

Another Anti-Charter Petition in New Jersey: Will Chris Cerf Do the Right Thing as He Leaves?

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2014 //
8

A group of superintendents in New Jersey drafted a petition to Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf, asking him to block the expansion of the Hatikvah Charter School.

The charter school has consistently been underenrolled. It plans to expand by drawing students and funds from their districts, impoverishing their already struggling public schools.

A decision is likely by Friday.

Will State Commissioner Chris Cerf do the right thing?

 

 

To:

Commissioner Christopher Cerf

New Jersey Department of Education

Judge Robert L. Carter Building

100 Riverview Plaza

PO Box 500

Trenton, NJ 08625-0500

February 21, 2014

We, the below signed Superintendents, write to request that you deny the expansion request submitted to your office on October 15, 2013 as part of the Hatikvah International Academy Charter School Application for Charter School Renewal.

Hatikvah has proposed not only the creation of a grade 6-8 Middle School, but also an increase from the current two to a proposed three classes of 25 students per grade in grades K-5. If approved, the Middle School would add an additional 150 students, and the additional class in grades K-5 would add yet another 150 students. This would double Hatikvah’s maximum 2013-14 enrollment of 273 students, to a maximum 2018-19 enrollment of 600 students. An expansion request in their 2018 Renewal Application for an additional 75 seats in grades 6-8 is also likely, which would bring Hatikvah’s ultimate enrollment projection to 675 students.

Since opening in 2010, Hatikvah has failed to fill their seats with students from East Brunswick, the only district they are approved to serve. As demonstrated in the October 15, 2013 Enrollment Count, they currently serve 263 students from 21 districts in 6 counties. In essence, due to a lack of sufficient interest in East Brunswick to fill enrollment, Hatikvah has become a de-facto statewide charter school.

It should be noted that, as of the October 15, 2013 Enrollment Count, Hatikvah was under enrolled, and had filled only 263 out of the 273 seats their charter allows. How can an expansion be justified when Hatikvah is unable to fill seats in all grades, even with the inclusion of students from 21 districts?

In fact, Hatikvah’s enrollment shows that a mere 57% of Hatikvah’s students reside in East Brunswick. This puts 43% of the funding burden on the other 20 districts across the state, that according to current statute and regulation, received no formal notice of Hatikvah’s expansion request, and have no legal standing in the deliberations or final decision that could adversely effect their budgets.

Hatikvah’s under enrollment, despite recruitment efforts in 21 districts in 6 counties, seems to indicate that the charter has failed to tap into an unmet need, not only in East Brunswick, but the state of New Jersey.

In many of our districts the majority of funding, in some cases close to 90%, comes from local tax dollars. The diversion of these funds, by state mandate, with no input from the local taxpayers, remains an issue of contention. This diversion of funds, coupled with 2% budget caps and continued state underfunding, is particularly challenging.

Also a challenge is the fact that the State Charter School Aid Projected Enrollment Count, used for budget purposes, often varies significantly from the actual October 15 Enrollment Count, forcing districts to either set aside too much money for charter tuition payments, or not enough, but in either case restricting much needed funds from tight budgets.

Finally, we wish to call your attention to the fact that Hatikvah’s student demographics are unlike any of our districts. According to the most recent available state data, Hatikvah is serving significantly fewer minorities, fewer children in poverty, fewer Limited English Proficient children and fewer Special Education children. In fact, Hatikvah serves no LEP students and only 1% of their students are reported as Special Education.

Hatikvah’s 2012-2013 Annual Report addresses the need for more diversity in their charter by stating that their “plan is to increase our recruitment efforts in New Brunswick in order to increase student diversity and the free/reduced lunch population.” In addition, the Hatikvah 2011-12 annual report states that they do not have a lunch program, but that free/reduced lunch students are “provided with a complimentary nutritious entrée by our PTO, 3 days a week.”

We submit for your consideration that Hatikvah has demonstrated an inability to enroll a diverse student population from the diverse districts they already serve, and very well may not be meeting many of the significant needs of some of the students they have enrolled.

Charter regulations clearly state that annually “the Commissioner shall assess the student composition of a charter school and the segregative effect that the loss of the students may have on its district of residence” and that the “annual assessments of student composition of the charter school” will be factored into the renewal of a charter. We respectfully submit that the demographic disparities between our districts and Hatikvah be given significant consideration in your decision.

We are in absolute agreement that the approval of the Hatikvah expansion would be contrary to N.J.S.A. 18A:36A-16(e)(3), as it would have an overall negative impact on the students, staff, parents, educational programs and finances of our districts.

 

Dr. Patrick Piegari

East Brunswick Superintendent

Mr. Timothy Capone

Highland Park Superintendent

Mr. Richard Kaplan

New Brunswick Superintendent

Dr. Brian Zychowski

North Brunswick Superintendent

Dr. Richard O’Malley

Edison Superintendent

Mr. Michael Pfister

South River Superintendent

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Education Reform, New Jersey, Privatization

Indiana Alert! Another Legislative Sneak Attack on Teachers

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2014 //
13
Call (don’t email) the Senate switchboard and tell your senator and any others you know to oppose 
Sen. Carlin Yoder amendmenment (dues deduction)
Call to OPPOSE

It only applies to school employees.  

Senator Yoder has an amendment on HB 1126 –the Wage Payment Act bill to remove dues deduction for school employees. Offering it as a second reading amendment to HB 1126.  This is a direct attack on teachers and applies to no other public sector workers. 

 
Senate Phones: 317-232-9400
 
Call now or asap

Julian M. Smith
Scipio Elementary
President JCCTA
ISTA Board of Directors

Categories Indiana

Hoboken to Christie Administration: Please Stop Charter Expansion!

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2014 //
5

The Hoboken, New Jersey, Board of Education has appealed to the State Education Department in the Chris Christie administration to stop the privatization of their public schools.

The DOE is likely to render its decision by Friday about the expansion of the Hola Dual Language Charter School.

Please be sure to read the link with the letter to Commissioner Chris Cerf (now leaving to work for Rupert Murdoch’s Amplify, no friend of public schools).

 

I received the following letter from a public school activist in Hoboken:

 The Public School District is expecting by Friday the DoE’s response to the application for expansion of the Hola Dual Language Charter school.  
 
Here is the District Superintendent’s, Dr. Mark Toback, impact statement to Commissioner Cerf asking him to deny that expansion.  The Hoboken BoE has also supported Dr. Toback’s impact statement with a board vote. 
 Commissioner Cerf letter for agenda 12-10-13.pdf (2,552 KB)  
 
Unfortunately,  with little understanding of the issues and the financial impact on the programs of our neediest students,  Mayor Zimmer, Councilman Mello (NYC public school teacher), and Councilman Bhalla have decided to take a side against the public school children.
 
Other political pressure comes from former State Assemblyman Ruben Ramos and his replacement State Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia both of whom have children attending the Hola Dual Language Charter School.
 
-Hola has 11% free and reduced price lunch students while the district has 72%. 
-Hola has 61% white students while the district has 25%
-Hola has 29% Latino students while the district has 55%
 
Hoboken is only one square mile yet we currently have 3 Charter schools that have led to dividing our community between the haves and the have nots. Currently $7.8 Million is diverted for Hoboken Charter Schools.
 
Since all of our public meetings are videotaped, if you had the time, you could watch a parade of Hola parents get up at the microphone begging the Superintendent not to oppose their charter school expansion.  Because they are so proud when they’re summering in Spain that their children can speak spanish.  Many of our public school students have never left the “projects” let alone the country.  You can view the meeting here, http://www.boarddocs.com/nj/hoboken/Board.nsf/Public#
Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, New Jersey

California Leads Nation in Charter Growth; Charter Board Member Charged with $750,000 Theft

By dianeravitch
February 24, 2014 //
25

California continues to outpace the nation in the growth of charter schools and charter enrollment, with 104 new schools and 48,000 additional students, according to a report by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

California now has 1,130 charter schools serving 519,000 students.

“The state figures represent a 6.1 percent increase in schools since 2012-13 and a 10.3 percent rise in charter student enrollment. Nationwide, the number of charters rose 7.3 percent. There were 436 new schools and 288,000 students added, for a total of 6,440 schools educating more than 2.5 million students.”

The president and CEO of the National Alliance, Nina Rees, pointed out that this was “the largest increase in the number of students attending charter schools we’ve seen since tracking enrollment growth.” Rees previously served as an education advisor to Vice-President Dick Cheney and to Michael Milken.

At the same time, a member of a charter school in Newport Beach, California, was accused of stealing $750,000 from the school by promising the other members of the board that he could invest it and parlay it into $3 million. He “didn’t return a dollar.” The alleged theft would be the largest from any California charter school. The organization runs five online charter schools.

Charter schools are virtually unregulated and unsupervised in California because the state education department lacks the staff to oversee them. Misdeeds are almost always dependent on whistle-blowers, not official investigations.

Categories California, Charter Schools
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