Millions on millions have been spent by billionaires to push through their agenda of privatization and to disrupt entire school districts, on the assumption that disruption is “creative.” No doubt, they are getting ready for the next elections, opening their wallets to anyone who promises to open more nonunion charters and to attack due process for teachers. In this statement, Steve Zimmer–who overcame a billionaire-funded candidate in his last election for the Los Angeles school board–calls for a truce. He asks the billionaires to work together with school leaders to make schools better for children, instead of squandering more millions to “win.” Win or lose, the problems for the kids remains the same. Why not collaborate and do what is best for them, which is not political but consists of meeting their needs for smaller class size, medical care, the arts, librarians, social workers, and the same kind of education that the millionaires want for their own children.
He writes:
The results of yesterday’s election once again confirm that public education is
not for sale. Against a gale storm of unprecedented funding, Tom Torlakson,
State Superintendent of Instruction narrowly won re-election. This was the most
expensive State Superintendent race in U. S. History. I congratulate
Superintendent Torlakson and urge him to continue his collaborative approach to
transforming outcomes for all students in California. I look forward to
continuing our close working relationship so that the Department of Education
expands the resources available to classrooms in support of student learning
throughout our District.
I also offer my best wishes to Marshall Tuck whom I have known well for many
years. I know that Marshall will continue to be a passionate advocate for
schools serving students in the most peril.
While it is tempting to feel exhilarated in the wake of this important victory,
I mostly feel exhausted. I am sick and tired of dodging bullets from corporate
education reform billionaires who have an endless magazine of resources to shoot
at folks trying to solve the problems facing our schools.
There must be another way we can have this important conversation. Instead of
reflecting on how the millions we spend distorting truths, attacking and
bullying one another could help real kids in real classrooms today, the
California Charter Schools Association is simply reloading their guns for the
Spring School Board elections. I am sure CTA and our other labor partners will
gear up their defense systems again in response. I have a long list of programs
we could fund in LAUSD with the close to $20 million dollars that went into this
latest battle. More and more it seems like a zero sum game in which kids lose
every time.
The solutions to the problems facing our kids are never simple. They require us
to roll up our sleeves and work together to find the difficult answers in
policy, in pedagogy and in practice. Finding solutions starts with listening.
Teachers listening to parents, parents listening to teachers, school leaders
listening to the community and everyone listening to our students. The last half
dozen election cycles have had a ton of screaming. Close to $50 million dollars
worth. And barely an ounce of listening.
I still believe that collaboration trumps conflict and that we can find common
ground. I still have hope that we can transcend the power struggles in the name
of the promise that public education still holds for families who dream of a
better life for their children. If we remember that we hold those dreams in our
hands, maybe we can do more than dust ourselves off and prepare for the next
battle.
Fat (Wallet) Chance …
I am no millionaire or billionaire, but I am trying to start an entertainment business with an educational department that works with the public schools in the towns, area and region it is located. My problem has not been one of interest, it has been actually pinning educators down to get them to help me work out a viable curriculum.
Entertainment has no representation here in the Midwest and I want to change that. I want to build an entertainment company that not only offers work, but helps schools further the education or artistically gifted children while they are still in grade and high school and help ease the strain on school budgets by offering this free to the schools.
My only testing would be hands on where the subject is concerned. In film, the final would be a film project. they would spend the year planning, writing storyline, writing the story, scripting, budgeting, and so on. same with musical projects. the idea is to have a finished film, book, CD, etc. from each student. The reward would be a community showcase of their finished projects, a sort of film festival. but I am finding that there is a lot of resistance from local and area schools and educators.
How can someone who wants to help and preserve public education by having their new business join forces gain support and get the help they need? I may not be an educator, but I have been asking for their help. (Understand that I wanted to get the educational talks under way before I began so that I could show interest in the team-up to potential investors)
You see, I am a product of public school. I love public education and desire to see it break free of the privatization craze. (I will be going back to school to earn a teaching degree in some aspect of the business, so I am not going to be a non-educator forever.)
Nice try. Who are you? What is your background? Long speech without ground! You will be successful with Charter Schools’ owners’ children who just love fame and fortune without hard work like you. back2basic
Your vision is not believable and that is your problem. What you are saying is something the sings to the tune of a future failing charter school, not a regular public school. I don’t mean to bash you, I am trying to give you constructive feedback.
Most teachers are resentful of being asked to be entertaining to the students. We know the children like to be entertained. We all do, but the fact is teachers do not have time, media, materials, nor a network of crew of cast members to make that happen on a regular basis. Therefore, we have to be excellent well organized class room managers first. We need to keep the class rooms running smoothly in a predictable manner. Inclusion and mainstreaming of disabled student is big in both public and charter schools. Many students have a lot of difficulty with frequent changes, self monitoring behavior, organizing themselves, and not being disruptive in creative environments.
We know it can be boring but, we are trying. We use a lot of voice inflection, pantomime, visuals, timers and schedules so students can stay on task. It’s hard work, and if you work in a title one low income school it is worse. Student behavior and their creative mannerism to derail the educational process is always a war being waged. You Have no idea and anything that goes wrong , always falls on the teachers. Administrators much rather discipline their own teaching staff then have to worry about little Jenny’s parent running to the district office to tattle. The administrators don’t even want to upset student or the parents. They don’t them pulling their children and going to a charter school. It hurts the school in providing services that by law and stringent regulation they have to deliver. In charters schools misbehaved children just go from charter to charter endlessly. Profits are pocketed and their is a sucker born every minute.
Everyone always think computers are the latest and greatest thing since at home children are intent of game playing an networking. However, at school with computers being in row of work stations something is lost . They are very distracted and like to have peer interaction. So many sites have to be blocked too. A single computer teacher is really working hard to keep students on task and monitoring what they are up to. It is a lot of work and stress in the computer labs, believe it or not.
Perhaps, it would be best for you to start working at a public schools first or at least volunteer regularly. Get known, and you can see and have discussions about what need to be done. Whatever it is you are going to have to make it something that is affordable.
Great observation and points!!!!
Yes, I can much of our current obsession with “cutting edge” ed-tech (or could it be “dull edged” useless tech) is misguided, not supported by research and provides little pedagogic gain for all of the expense (the ratio I call “pedagogical bang for the buck”). Yes, vendors and suppliers (and school boards that get kick-backs) want to buy and implement much of it, but those of us that have taught 20+ years realize it is not that much more effective as a learning tool.
I call it the “worship of the golden hammer”; it is shiny and flashy but does not produce the results of the “old-school iron hammer”. In teaching science, students profit in experience and cognitive development doing real labs with real equipment, not Web-based simulations like Gizmos (which can be a good supplement, but not replacement).
I would argue I can teach biology and chemistry fine and efficaciously without ever referring to a website (it was done that way for hundreds of years).
So, why do districts think they have to buy golden hammers (which have higher cost, higher maintenance and less educational gains)?????
I resent not getting a pay raise, while more district money goes to Bill Gates in buying useless hardware and software……..duh!
That’s a very nice thing for Steve to say.
However, what is he going to do about it at the Board going forward?
Is he going to cleanse LAUSD of all that Deasy did to advance the agenda of the corporate education reform billionaires that have been attacking Steve and three others for some time?
Is he going to finally look at how the budget was structured to advance said agenda? More importantly, is he going to call for the budget to be changed? Letting the apparatchiks ensconced in the bureaucracy continue to provide the Board with pablum formulated by the Superintendent is no longer a sustainable process, as the iPad and MiSiS fiasco show. In fact, I suggest that he look into how Special Ed is funded because that is supposed to be central to an ACLU shot-across-the-bow.
If all he is going to call for is a Kumbaya moment, well, I don’t think matters will change much. He and his colleagues will have to continue dodging bullets, regardless of whether he is sick and tired of it.
Enough playing defense, Steve. Time to go on offense.
ditto…
Unfortunately, You would think special education is the shot across the bow, however I found that I was blown off in my case when I contacted the ACLU regarding my autistic sons case. I felt I had to leave the charter because the school kept dragging it feet to provide services. If no one takes the issue and civil rights violation through to Due Process hearings, no matter how long it takes, then charters will be free to do what ever they want.
Most people will put their disabled children’s needs first and pull them rather then wait for an 11th hour small victory, going through Due Process. The documentation process is stacked against parent and children in supplying needs. The mediators usually favors the schools over students needs too. Parent’s no matter public or charter are painted by the school in being over demanding and unreasonable. It is not fair.
Parents only win in about 20% of cases and that usually involved bodily harm not academic or failure to provide appropriate services. Also on the parents end to go through Due Process you are looking at spending at least $20,000 in lawyer fees. If a parent doesn’t win the case for their child, parents do not recoup those cost. My feelings about the ACLU, is it is bigoted, and only likes to take on quick, cheap, and easy to win cases. Special education is often complicated. I am sure the ACLU might consider a case in which the child, is a disabled child, is a minority, getting shocked by a cattle prod.
The Attorney Generals Office of Education will be of little help to. They desire criminal cases not civil matters. Other then that… Dream on and wish and hope for change, because our politician being mostly RED, love to receive charter school donations. Most people don’t see the problems with the civil rights violation of the disabled. In fact they don’t even care.
The diagnosis of autism was recently made more uniformed and harder to qualify for since a lot of ADHD children could actually fall on the spectrum too in the past. Even with the new guidelines 1 in 67 children now being diagnosed with autism. Soon I am sure more families are going to care with the growing number of autistic children needing an intensive from of education and life skills training.
That is when the shot across the bow will come. It will come when parents have to make financial sacrifices. Parents will have to choose to either home school their disabled children , so they can take their children to more appropriate therapies during the day, or fight with the public school/ charter school. The schools usually offer an aids to deliver consult therapy sessions in a group format. Teachers usually have a large variety of students to meet challenges, and most TA’s receive little training, except what the already overburden special education teacher tells them to do. Most special educators are young as the burn out is high. Special education lacks well trained teachers specialized in a particular area or knowledge of disability. Schools and especially charter schools provide services that give the appearance of special education with out maximum or efficient progress.
Humm, the skeptic in me asks, “why would a CEO work to make a public, tax-funded, institution better?” Why would they not work against them (make them look bad) in order to provide a rational for bringing in their companies and promoting their alternative schools, where profits can be made?
Does true altruism exist, or only some form of “kin selection” (I’ll help you, if you can provide some tangible benefit to me). If “market forces” of capitalism are considered more important than societal forces of socialism, then the “make me money” mentality of the CEO (demon on left shoulder) will speak louder than the “put others needs first” (angel on the right shoulder).
It’s a good piece. One of the weird contradictions of ed reform is their supposed adherence to “innovation” and “choice!” EXCEPT when it comes to existing public schools- there it’s all grim and top-down and stern and scolding.
I find it very off-putting, just as a public school parent, and I don’t even work in a public school.
I fundamentally don’t buy that all the local people who work at our public school are operating PURELY out of self-interest. I especially don’t buy it because 1. I know many of them, and 2. many of their children go to our schools, and, 3. many of THEM went to our public schools. I think they value our schools. All of them, to the same extent? No, but that’s true in any group or organization. Are they maliciously sabotaging my kid in order to hang onto their health insurance and the Status Quo? No. I think that’s ridiculous and insulting.
Yeah, many CEOs are libertarians vis a vis government control. But with respect to control of their own organizations? Authoritarians! I look at libertarians are grown-up versions of the boys in class who hate all rules –until they’re in charge. Libertarians fight for the freedom of corporations to deprive workers of their freedom. The “unfreedom” of government regulation can create real freedom for workers; conversely the freedom of laissez faire creates unfreedom for many ordinary citizens.
Ponderosa-
Thanks for the concise summary.
.
The fundamental libertarian failure-
“I just want to be left alone to do what I want.” it’s a feeling not a philosophy.
I agree, libertarianism is more of a romantic ideal then something that is good for all people in society. It is great if everyone was healthy , had the same abilities, and opportunities to be successful. Communism kind of has the same ideals going on as well. Both sound wonderful at first and are not realistic in meeting the needs of individual or preserving civil rights a goal of libertarianism. we once had a democracy that was not fascist, a little socialist concerning meeting the needs of all people in the region. In my opinion the problem now and has been for some time uncontrolled immigration, which takes a huge hit of public services.
Ambulances Hospitals once only charged a small fee for emergency services. Healthcare was not that expensive either as doctors did not charge huge fees.
Education was super but, then special education which was never fully funded, was better funded and became more prominent. special education when done appropriately is very expensive. Parental involvement was high. More mothers stayed home and until the children were out of school. They were more available to help their children with home work and projects. Fathers were expected to be involved with science project in particular. Schools did not have that many special needs children and other people were happy to be helpful and understanding.
. Children appeared to have a healthier population. Schools were free to choose their local cafeteria vender often making meals right in the kitchen of the schools themselves. They did not need to go to a federal certified vender to buy and make food. Milk was whole milk and their was plenty or high fat protein based foods offered with less sugar in children’s diets. We have forgotten children need lots of protein and fat for there brains to develop . It not calories that a problem , it not enough good fats and protein.
Schools served the community and there was less testing, teachers grades mattered and special programs and few special programs such as immigration and English Second Language (ESL) or Gifted and Talented, AVID or any other drop out prevention program existed. After 16 a student was allowed to drop out or could be kicked out if the behavior was severe enough. We also had reform and residential schools to address student who were frequently tardy, absent or had difficulty behaving. This although expensive on the tax payer was probably good, since it made students and parents more accountable, and provided a consistent scheduled to the students with poor organizational skills. Now the Youth Authorities only serve the criminal type element of students. Charters you would think would be a way to go back to simpler times, but actually it just makes for budgeting hell for public schools who must meet the needs of all students, because they are here in America. So I would think if parents desire the simple life for their children , then perhaps the charter schools should receive 1/2 to 2/3 less for providing less the appropriate services public schools do and return those missing monies back to the regular public school system.
Now that Zimmer has finally gone on record to denounce the iPad project and the corporate agenda foisted on LAUSD by Deasy, the hope is that he will put his money where his mouth is and start pushing for decisions that will repeal or at least reduce the negative impacts presently and in the future.
more ditto…
“Billioncare$”
Billionaire$ have billioncare$
And target$ in their $ight$
And public $chool$ with public jewel$
Are $urely worth the fight
If billionaires were the type of people who really understand the concept of helping, they wouldn’t be billionaires.
“Behind every great fortune there is a great crime.”
–Honore de Balzac
Zimmer speaks with forked tongue. He publicly complains about $$ spent on Tuck – yet endorsed Ben Allen for state senate, a Dem, who had the same corporate/Republican money. Zimmer talks a good game, occasionally, but sticks his finger in the wind to see how to vote. Not a person of principle.
huge ditto…thanks Kim for telling it as it is.
That sucking sound you hear is all the Bourbon in Kentucky being drained off to DC, so I guess a glass of Tanqueray will have to do …
Thanks for the music for an excellent dinner. Once a month I buy myself and my son a good steak, in this case a ribeye for 6.99/lb (gotta splurge every once and a while). He does an excellent job of grilling and I made Swiss cheese potatoes-slice some potatoes like for pan fries, bake em in butter with salt and pepper at 500 degrees turning once when brown on top and the after browning again add the shredded Swiss and some shredded Parmesan. Add some steamed broccoli and a glass of red wine and some great music a la Jon and oh, so good.
My friends child pay $1,000 peer month for her son to play in the marching band, while John Legend profits from efforts to harm school children.
Thank you Ponderosa:
It is worth to repeat: WITH A CHANGE FROM LIBERTARIANS TO CONSERVATIVES
“”-Libertarians- INDEED, CONSERVATIVE fight for the freedom of corporations to DEPRIVE workers of their freedom. The “unfreedom” of government regulation (= strict regulations) can create real freedom for workers; conversely the freedom of laissez faire creates unfreedom (restricted claims) for many ordinary citizens.”” Back2basic
Reblogged this on ogookoyejohnson and commented:
It is very poignant that the funds that are usually spent on election campaigns are more than enough to effect drastic improvement on the quality of education for all K-16 students nationwide.
ogookoye-johnson, yes, there are the millions–hundreds of millions–spent on campaigns. Then there are the trillions spent on wars without end. The President is asking for $6.5 Billion to support another 1,500 advisors for Iraq.
So true!