Jeanne Kaplan recently retired as an elected member of the Denver school board. She has started her own blog where she will keep track of education in Denver.
Here is her inaugural post, where she lays out the facts about “reform” in Denver. The biggest “success” has been the steady increase in privately managed charter schools, most of which get free public space. The educational gains are harder to find.
She writes:
“My name is Jeannie Kaplan. I had the honor and privilege of serving on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education for 8 years, from 2005 through November 2013. Michael Bennet was superintendent, having been selected in June of 2005. Mr. Bennet served until January 2009 when he was selected to be the junior Senator from Colorado. His replacement was and continues to be Tom Boasberg, Michael’s childhood friend and former DPS Chief Operating Officer.
“I believe today as I did when I first ran for the school board that public education is a fundamental cornerstone of our democracy. I am starting a blog to explore and hopefully shed some light on the complicated issues challenging public education today. I am going to be writing about my passion, public education, with a focus on Denver Public Schools. I will try to provide a voice for a side of this debate that is often overlooked by the main stream media.”
Jeanne Kaplan is one of our nation’s strongest voices for public education and for democracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
The only education reform taking place is to move tax-payer dollars to for-profit, private Charter Schools with no proof that this is leading to improved education for our children because there is no way to monitor or evaluate what’s going on. So far, the Obama Race to the Top agenda is failing repeatedly and being ignored by most of the traditional media, the White House and most members of Congress while a well planned PR campaign is fooling as many Americans as possible.
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Lloyd, I have to agree.
This has become about who gets the money and not about education. Yes, I know there are those who like to say “those greedy teachers and their unions” while somehow believing that for-profit charter management companies are altruistic.
Regardless of what one thinks of charters and traditional public schools, there can be little doubt regarding where the money goes. Even a cursory look at the Detroit Free Press expose revealed the massive amounts of money that get siphoned for administrative costs in charters versus traditional.
An argument I have used to win people over a little goes like this:
Your tax dollars can either go to line the pockets of some far away entity like Mosaica who is headquartered in Atlanta or it can go to your teachers who will send that money back into your very own community. Which do you prefer?
They don’t change their minds, but they do hesitate to have a response.
It’s about the money and who gets it. Teachers (and their unions, I guess) or corporate entities with investors?
It has never been about education.
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Steve K.. your words ARE WORTH repeating…
“Yes, I know there are those who like to say “those greedy teachers and their unions” while somehow believing that for-profit charter management companies are altruistic…”
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AMEN to your, “It has never been about education.” More specfically, It’s abpit the privatization of public education. Following the money is a must and just makes me SIC. Who profits? Not the kids, teachers, or the parents, who contribute huge amounts of money to campaign contributions.
My wish: NO MORE INCUMBENTS in office. Didn’t know that serving in office is a LIFE TIME job. This was NOT the intent. But over time, well…corruption to the core. Besides, the politicians get to take ALL campaign contributions as personal income when they leave office. Plus, they have the BEST health care and retirement system as well, and their words don’t match their actions.
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Go Jeanne!
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From the blog linked in the posting:
[start quote]
EMPLOYEES:
Policy wonks on both sides of the education debate emphasize the importance of good leadership both at the district level but particularly at the school level as a key to academic success. There is much data to show how “reform” is causing great churn and chaos in Denver’s neighborhoods and schools. Regarding leadership changes in traditional DPS schools:
From 2009 through August 2014, the 135 remaining traditional (that is non-charter) schools have witnessed the following changes: 83% have had at least one change in school leadership, 35% have had more than one change. Approximately 20 schools have seen no change in leadership.
For teachers the turnover is equally disturbing: According to a recent article in Westword, http://www.westword.com/2014-04-10/news/teacher-lawsuit-against-dps/
DPS has hired 2771 new teachers in the last four years, after losing nearly 3000 teachers for a wide variety of reasons. Approximately 10% of these new teachers are expected to come from Teach for America, where teachers generally stay for two years. Finders’ fees for these teachers cost the district upwards of half a million dollars.
I cannot give you similar data for employee retention and loss for charter schools because DPS does not have that data, another interesting factoid about the charter school movement in Denver. I have to call each charter school individually to get that information, and I have not yet had the time to do so. This is yet another seeming disconnect regarding the debate about charters as public or private entities. Charters are included in the overall DPS website when it best suits them, like being listed in the overall schools list with no special categorization. Yet, the DPS job site has no charter school openings because each charter school operates independently on this level. So charters appear to be in the public DPS domain when it best suits them and they are not when it does not. Public? Private?
[end quote]
Leaving aside the important question of burn-and-churn, look again at the last three sentences.
Don’t expect an answer any time soon. But Ionesco reminds us:
“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.”
😎
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Also, see this, which is another way for Wend Kopp to cash in: http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2014/04/14/3425830/denver-school-district-daca-teachers/
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It is the acceptance of a corrupt policy that pushes a system of public -private partnership that is sucking the lifeblood from our democracy. Transparency and democratic control is lost when public funds are taken over by private entities.
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It’s such a joke to call them “public-private” partnerships.
The private party has all the power and complete control of these programs. Politicians could not be more deferential to the “donors”. They’re basically groveling.
It’s disgusting that they’re turning every kid who goes to a public school into a beggar. We all have a responsibility to fund schools with taxes. We’re not competing for the favor of wealthy people, and our kids shouldn’t be either. It’s a horrible thing to do to them, making them and their schools wholly dependent on business interests.
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TAGO, Chiara!
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Jeanee,
Please give your readers the inside story to the extent that you can.
Denver is a case study of the corporate/foundation led effort to install pay-for-performance as the norm for every district. Unless I am mistaken, the Denver project started in 1999 with funding from two regional foundations and the infamous Broad Foundation based in California.
This money and much enthusiasm from at least some members of the business community helped the district hire a Boston-based consulting firm to manage the multi-year project. That same outfit produced a report, about 2004/05 dubbed “research” but really designed to put a gloss on the process and the results.
I don’t live in Denver. I tripped on Denver because the consultants required a version of Peter Drucker’s approach to management-by-objectives (1954) now discredited for many reasons. The consulting company grafted 1960s “behavioral objectives” onto Drucker’s approach to management, producing some draconian demands on teachers for accurate productivity measures–increments in test scores– by the end of the course or year.
The Denver model is being propagated all over the country, including my home state of Ohio, and most recently in the state of Maryland. The Denver model is the darling for policy-makers who want to get stack ratings of teachers in subjects for which there are not statewide tests.
Three recent reports from the Institute of Education Sciences show that this Denver-spawned approach has no peer-reviewed research to support it. The Boston-based consulting company had done the same number on other districts.
In other words, don’t underestimate the importance of your blog. I am among many who look forward to what you have to say.
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Thank you, Laura. I intend to write in much more detail about the various “reforms” Denver is experimenting with. I have a lot of information in my head, on my computer, and, yes, in boxes of paper. Since I am new to this, I am still trying to determine the best way to make the information understandable and accessible. Diane Ravitch has been an amazing help. All suggestions are welcome.
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Thank you for being one more point of light poking a hole in the curtain of reform. If enough light shines through we may eventually get back to public discussion of a school’s proper role in a community, and how we can adopt policies that improve the community and support the school. We may even give the schools a possible mission and not require the schools to do the miraculous or else.
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Congratulations on getting it up and going. It is important to share the true crisis that public education is in. “The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”
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