Blogger Rachel Levy sends out an alert to everyone in Virginia: Please contact Governor McAuliffe and ask him not to appeal the court decision saying that the state’s plan to take over low-performing schools violates the state’s constitution. The decision stopped the state from creating an anti-democratic bureaucracy called the Opportunity Educational Institution.
Levy writes:
“I am urging you to contact Governor McAuliffe’s administration (804-786-2211) to tell him to let the court’s ruling stand. The OEI is bad for democracy, it’s bad for local control, it’s bad for public education, and it will add another layer of expensive and superfluous bureaucracy. If people want charter schools in their local communities, let them work that out among members of their local community, via a democratic process and under the umbrella of the local school division; charter schools and privatization should not be imposed from up high by the state.”
She wrote last year:
“There’s no evidence that state takeover of struggling schools and districts helps. In fact, the evidence is at best mixed. The Governor and his policy allies are basing this approach on the system in New Orleans, which thus far has not proven successful. That Virginia would use as a model a city that hasn’t had much educational success doesn’t make sense. Michigan has also turned many public services over to the private sector, including the schools of Muskegon Heights. So far, that approach has been a disaster.
“Elliminating democratic institution and processes in a democratic society is not a cure for dysfunction or low test scores. Certainly, mass failure on the SOL tests signals a problem, but before the state blames and disenfranchises school communities, it really needs to figure out what that problem is and then target its resources accordingly. While many majority poor schools do just fine on standardized tests, I think we all know that the schools with low standardized test scores are often majority poor. Last I checked, being poor isn’t a reason to disenfranchise communities and hand their schools over to outsiders.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
quote: “Elliminating democratic institution and processes in a democratic society is not a cure for dysfunction or low test scores. it really needs to figure out what that problem is and then target its resources accordingly. ”
Thank you for these words; they are useful in contacting politicians, your local reps etc.
We don’t want to copy the New Orleans charter schools as A. Duncan is recommending.
Local reps have to get involved and support local school boards….. make the phone calls!!!!
Rachel Levy,
If you need additional evidence, have your governor take a look at three New Jersey state takeover districts; Jersey City, Newark, Paterson for a record of lack of progress.
And the EAA in Michigan
FYI to those who support this plea. Without intending to offend many followers of this blog, consider the ultra left leanings of McAuliffe.
He takes his marching orders on education from Arnie Duncan. Don’t be surprised if he pushed VA to implement Common Core, as education is secondary to orthodoxy.
In what universe is Arne Duncan “ultra left”??
I’ve been following the issue of women’s health in the State of VA for the simple reason that I taught there in 1970. I wouldn’t consider McAuliffe “ultra left”…
A lot of the states just hopped on the bandwagon with A. Duncan because as Diane said earlier, they were “cash strapped”…..
In MA the governor and ed commies. just made up the goals to show 100% achievement in order to get money$$$$$..
Totally lost me with Duncan as ultra left.
He (and his boss) are complete corporate tools, my friend.
Unless we are actually in these districts, we don’t really know the real context of the situation.
While I think a state takeover should be a last option, it should be on the table. The question is what happens when a district fails to support it’s schools, is corrupt, and still elects the same boards? This has been a real situation in a couple of district here in South Carolina.
The state takeover itself may not make things immediately better. But it can do an often-needed housecleaning and do-over.
So maybe all state takeovers aren’t the same and can be the lesser of some evils.
Really? Please provide some South Carolina links. I am intrigued.
Peter have you looked at the 4 options for “turn around schools” that came along with the SIG funding/ I posted them last week and don’t want to restate them but it is horrendous to see what Washington is recommending the states should do … It is the same thing that Naruda says about “slash and burn” (I think I gave a quote like that here on the blog but I might have misspelled his name).
If you are talking about Pablo Neruda, yes you misspelled it.
Are you referring to his Nobel lecture of 1971?
Thanks, Duane…. yes, I was meaning Naruda (I had the wrong spelling) and his work because I think it is where we all are now (especially teachers in public schools) with the corporate world consuming the energy and the profits that are being drained it is like “deforestation” to me. Pablo Neruda ‘the people’s poet’ shared the concerns he had for the well-being of his native county and his despair at how his homeland and his people’s lives were being destroyed by the self-interest and disregard for human life that fuels profit driven international companies. This is the situation we are all in and the politicians keep making things worse….. that is why I am so disappointed in my vote for the democrats but these are forces that they don’t seem to be able to hold at bay ….. sometimes I call it “Moscow 3 ring circus” and we are led by “mandarins” in the commissioner of education’s office and I get totally disgusted.
cx: here is the correct spelling, sorry I got it wrong
Pablo Neruda
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 was awarded to Pablo Neruda “for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”.