Archives for the month of: December, 2014
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Can You Answer Kevin’s Question?

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2014 //
372

I received the following question from reader Kevin Magee, which is very important. We know that about half of all teachers leave teaching in their first five years; charter schools often have even higher turnover. If public schools had the same ability to discipline students as charter schools, there would be no demand for charter schools. On the other hand, charter schools are free to suspend students again and again until they leave or even expel them. If public schools did that, it would be illegal. What would happen to those students? What should happen to them? What would need to change in public schools to establish an atmosphere in which students were fully engaged? What should be done about students who are disruptive? What is our advice to Kevin (and me)?

 

 

Diane,

 

I have enjoyed reading your blog, articles, and books for years. I have learned so much.

 

What concerns me is that I never hear the discussion of why the conditions of teaching are so bad, beyond the unfair assessment of teachers through standardized tests. Why is there such a high turnover of teachers?

 

I had to retire from teaching at a Title One School because the behavior of the students prohibited me from teaching math and science. Not a word on this huge phenom in our Title 1 Schools. Keep the bad behavior in the classroom to manipulate the dropout rate, etc.

 

The leaders in education ignore this “white elephant”. Without a teacher’s assistant in many classes, it is impossible to actually teach. This is the ultimate, ugly endgame of povery: Not Education, but rather Classroom Management.

 

Why don’t leaders help create the conditions necessary for learning?

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Tennessee Mama Bears Review Their New State Commissioner

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2014 //
15

After Kevin Huffman stepped down as state commissioner in Tennessee, Governor Haslam selected Candace McQueen as his successor.

The Momma Bears of Trnnessee–the state’s parent activists—here figures out who she is, what she believes, and hopes for the best.

She is a Common Core cheerleader. The Mama Bears say poo to that.

She testified to the state legislature on behalf of Common Core and PARCC. Mama Bears say poo again.

“Finally, the announcement was made that the heir to the throne would be… Dr. Candice McQueen! A woman! A mom! A person who spent 5 years as a real teacher! We knew a little bit already about her from writing a past Momma Bear blog, but we researched her even more. There wasn’t much new to learn. We were disheartened to see that she has been a tireless cheerleader for Common Core. She testified to the TN legislature in support of the Common Core and the high-stakes PARCC test. Pooey. She is serving on the board of SCORE (the organization funded by Bill Gates to support Common Core and reformy stuff). Double pooey. She’s also served on boards that profit from Common Core (like the Ayers Foundation who received a huge chunk of the Race to the Top prize money to develop Common Core videos). Triple pooey. She’s involved with Pearson (a British mega-corporation) through Pearson’s EDTPA program that grants teaching licenses to people who can pass Pearson’s tests. Quadruple pooey. That’s a whole lot of poo, people!”

“On the other hand, her own private school, Lipscomb, was not doing Common Core; Lipscomb’s three private schools have their OWN standards. In fact, there was nearly a parent revolt at Lipscomb when the private school parents thought their little darlings would be doing the same Common Core standards as public school darlings… but Candice wiggled her way out of that one, assuring them there is no way in H-E-double-hockey sticks that Common Core has been adopted at Lipscomb and there are no plans for Common Core ever at Lipscomb, saying, “We make decisions about what’s going to be best within the context of our community. I would say that’s absolutely what we’re going to do now and for the future.” (insert applause from the Momma Bear gallery).”

The Mama Bears also read her doctoral dissertation on parent involvement.

Their conclusion is a home run:

Momma Bears have a whole bunch of questions that nobody will know the answers to for a few years:

Will she be the Governor’s puppet?

Will she still be a champion for the Common Core initiative? Will she defend and strengthen the battered teaching profession? Will she be an advocate for children or for business interests? Will she listen to parents when we tell her the testing is excessive? Will she understand and act wisely upon what she hears? Will she see parents as the enemies as Kevin Huffman did? Will she truly listen?

If we could ask her some literal questions, we’d like to know:

What were McQueen’s TVAAS scores were when she taught? Was she a level 5?

Why didn’t she teach longer? 2 years at one private school + 3 years at a public elementary school don’t seem to be very long at all. That’s not even long enough to gain tenure. Why did she quit so soon?

What happened to the 5th grade student she wrote about in her dissertation who was frustrated to tears over math homework? Would Sue Dugger, the student’s mother, rate McQueen as an excellent or poor teacher?

Does McQueen keep in touch with any of her former public school students? (we’re not talking about the adult students in her grad programs, but want to know about the children she taught because teaching is a lot about building relationships) Did her students feel valued, respected, and did they enjoy learning?

Where do her own children attend school? Is she involved as a parent there? Does she volunteer with the PTO/PTA?

What does parental involvement mean to her? Private schools often have different expectations than public schools.

What would she do if her own child was overwhelmed with testing and/or homework?

Would McQueen support suspending TCAP testing for 2015, or at least make it a no-consequences test since it is not aligned with the standards that are in limbo?

Would McQueen support throwing the secretive TVAAS formula and evaluation system out?

Will McQueen push the Governor for increasing teacher pay in Tennessee as he promised to do years ago?

Will she advocate for smaller class sizes and more support staff in schools?

Will she be a supporter of Art, Music, and sports in every school in TN?

Will she respect a parent’s choice to opt-out of standardized testing for their child?

Will she get rid of all these expensive benchmark assessments and screener tests that are eating up instructional time and recess for our children?
Will she take an honest look at the new RTI2 program mandated in TN? Is it really helping students, or is it helping the testing companies? Is it hurting students with disabilities and special needs?

Will she hire qualified, experienced people within the Tennessee Department of Education, or will she favor young, inexperienced Teach For America yes-man types like Huffman did?

Will she strengthen our locally elected school boards or seek to further revoke their power?

Will she favor charter schools over public schools?

Will she have the guts to close failing or corrupt charter schools, including the online K12 virtual school that is making so much money for its owner and for politicians’ campaigns?

Will she get rid of the ASD and give failing, poor schools the support they desperately need to help their students succeed?

Will she sign a multi-million dollar no-bid contract with Teach For America with our tax dollars?

Goodness, that’s a whole lot of unanswered questions!

and a whole lot of poo!!!

Momma Bears will be watching…

Categories Common Core, Parents, Tennessee

EduShyster: Salem, Massachusetts, Is Bewitched by Data, Jargon, and Entrepreneurs

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2014 //
2

EduShyster pays a visit to Salem, Massachusetts, where “school choice” has enabled the affluent families to go to some highly-resourced schools, while the less-affluent go to less-resourced schools.

 

If you want to see how bizarre and brain-dead “reform” is, look no farther than Salem. There, the town has fallen in love with jargon and data, and looks to edupreneurs to solve all problems by supplying edumanure.

 

She writes:

 

“At the center of the Open System beats an edupreneurial heart, one belonging to Empower Schools, founded by edupreneur Chris Gabrieli, whose list of political connections is as long as an extended school day, and Bret Alessi, former Education Pioneer and current Mass 2020 visionary. What precisely Empower Schools does, other than BELIEVE IN OPEN SYSTEMS…and produce case studies like this one, remains a bit vague-ish. What I can tell you is that Empower has quickly one over powerful friends aka *aligned leaders,* like Massachusetts Commissioner of College and Career Readiness, Mitchell D. Chester, who recently sang Empower’s praises to the Boston Globe in a story on how school partnerships with edupreneurial groups like Empower are failing to produce results…..Everybody who is anybody
But I digress. The important thing is that the Salem schools bus is hurtling towards a new system, an Open System, and that everyone who is anyone appears to be on board, from the city’s politically ambitious mayor, to the members of the Salem Partnership, to the members of the Community Advisory Board of the Salem Partnership, to the members of the Salem Education Foundation. In other words, everybody who is anybody in the city is *highly aligned,* jargonically speaking, behind a vision of what the city’s students need to succeed. A *laser-like focus on instruction* and *frequent assessments.* The Open System comes with transportation — and to quote district leaders, *data drives the bus.* And that teachers don’t just want to teach, they want to Teach Plus co-captain the data bus.”

 

But what happens when one family says “No, we don’t want our child to take the tests?” Shockingly, the family won the right to opt out. They have been joined by five other families. Hopefully there will be more. How will the “data bus” function if there is no data? Stay tuned. Will the data bus veer out of control? Or will it continue to drive right over the cliff with the children of Salem?

 

 

Categories Data and Data Mining, Education Industry, Massachusetts, Testing

Only 9% of Guests on Education Issues on Cable Stations Are Educators

By dianeravitch
December 28, 2014 //
21

Media Matters did a survey of the three major cable networks: CNN, Fox, and MSNBC and discovered that only 9% of the guests on shows about education were educators.

 

Across MSNBC, CNN, And Fox, Only 9 Percent Of Guests In Education Segments Were Educators. On segments in which there was a substantial discussion of domestic education policy between January 1, 2014, and October 31, 2014, there were 185 guests total on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox, only 16 of whom were educators, or 9 percent.

 

Furthermore, MSNBC Was The Only Network Above The Average. MSNBC, at 14 percent, was the only network above the average of 9 percent, while CNN and Fox were behind at 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

 

The survey covered the period from January 1, 2014, to October 31, 2014.

 

The following programs were included in the data: The Situation Room, Erin Burnett OutFront, Crossfire, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Tonight, The Ed Show, PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton, Hardball with Chris Matthews, All In with Chris Hayes, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, The Five, Special Report with Bret Baier, On the Record with Greta Van Susteren, The O’Reilly Factor, The Kelly File, and Hannity. For shows that air reruns, only the first airing was included in data retrieval.

 

Media Matters only included segments that had substantial discussion of domestic education policy issues, including but not limited to: education reform, teacher tenure, early education, guns in schools, the Common Core educational standards, religion in schools, and school choice. We included each segment where education policy was the stated topic of discussion. We also included segments that were not limited solely to education but that featured significant discussion of the topic. We defined significant discussion as at least two speakers in the segment talking about education to one another (e.g. the host asking a guest a question about education during a multi-topic interview).

 

We defined an “educator” as someone who either is or has been employed as a K-12 teacher, a school administrator such as a principal, a professor of education at the college or university level, or someone with an advanced degree (master’s or Ph.D.) in education.

 

We counted all guests who appeared in relevant segments, using bios, profiles, resumes, and news stories available online to determine as best we could each guest’s educational background and professional experience.

 

 

 

Categories Education Reform

Readers React to York City Takeover and Likely Handover to For-Profit Charter Chain

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 //
16

Earlier today, I posted about the decision by a judge in Pennsylvania to declare the York City School District to be in “receivership,” meaning that it will now be controlled by the state. The district is being punished because its board refused to follow the receiver’s orders. Parents and educators fought the decision, but their voices did not count.

 

 

Here is a comment from one reader (Chiara), who also noted that Vice President Joe Biden’s brother, Frank, came to testify on behalf of the for-profit charter takeover (he works for a for-profit charter in Florida called Mavericks):

 

 

York isn’t the first public school district that was completely privatized by a politically connected for-profit charter management company.

 

Muskegon Heights MI was the first.

 

It was privatized but it’s never mentioned by ed reformers (unlike say, New Orleans) because the charter management company pulled out and left town when they determined they couldn’t turn a profit. Muskegon Heights doesn’t fit the ed reform narrative so it simply isn’t discussed.

 

“MUSKEGON HEIGHTS, MI — Mosaica Education Inc. will no longer manage the Muskegon Heights charter school district, and plans will begin immediately to seek a replacement company.
Muskegon Heights Public Schools Emergency Manager Gregory Weatherspoon said the separation came down to an issue of finances. Mosaica, a for-profit company, was running a deficit budget and not making a profit.”

 

I think they dump the for-profit charter chains in states where there’s no regulation, lawmakers are completely captured and there’s no national media focus – states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Florida.

 

OH, MI, PA and FL get all the ed reform garbage. It washes up here.

 

OH, MI, PA and FL should serve as a warning to other states not to lift charter caps and deregulate further, but it won’t. They’ll all end up like the least regulated states. It’s a race to the bottom.

 

http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/04/mosaica_out_as_manager_of_musk.html

 

 

Another, 2old2teach, wrote this pointed question:

 

 

It really makes you wonder how these folks dare to appear in public. How do they teach democracy in York, now?

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Pennsylvania, Privatization

FairTest Reports on Advance of Test Reform Movement

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 //
1

This is the regular report from Bob Schaeffer of FairTest, which has been promoting test reform for many years.

 

 

Happy Holidays to assessment reformers around the nation from everyone at FairTest, and best wishes for a New Year filled with victories rolling back test misuse and overuse.

 

You can help strengthen the movement for 2015 by making an online contribution at: http:/www.fairtest.org/donate or mailing a check to P.O. Box 300204, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.

 

Thanks for all you do!

 

Delaware Selective School Entrance Exams Under Fire
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/76322-delaware-school-entrance-assessments-face-tough-test

 

Florida State Government Will Investigate School Testing Concerns
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/state-says-it-will-investigate-standardized-tests-in-schools/2211152

 

Atlanta, Georgia Test Cheating Trial May Last Until Spring
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/District_Dossier/2014/12/atlanta_trial_week_11.html

 

Maryland Teachers Call for Suspension of Kindergarten Readiness Test
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2014/12/maryland_teachers_union_calls_.html

 

New Jersey Teens’ Testimony Leads Board to Evaluate Testing Requirement
http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2014/12/voorhees_student_opposition_to.html
Parents Cheer 10-Year-Old Student’s Dissection of New Jersey Common Core Test
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/16/i-dont-want-to-deal-with-this-nonsense-what-a-10-year-old-girl-had-to-say-about-common-core-left-parents-cheering/
12 Reasons Why New Jersey Activists Oppose PARCC Testing
https://www.facebook.com/SaveOurSchoolsNJ/posts/882113598488468

 

New Mexico Legislation Would Limit Testing Days
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3656903.shtml

 

New York Advocates Blast Gov. Cuomo’s Teacher Testing Scheme
http://poststar.com/blogs/a_time_to_learn/cuomo-poses-teacher-changes-advocates-say-priorities-misplaced/article_1c4d39be-870e-11e4-aa87-8332f9b35724.html

 

Over-Testing Tea Party for North Dakota Students
http://www.grandforksherald.com/opinion-letters/3637256-letter-tea-party-students-tested-enough-already

 

Purpose of Texas Schools Should Not Be Generating More Testing Data
http://www.cagle.com/2014/12/point-of-schools-isnt-more-testing/

 

Utah Grades the Wrong Things in Education
http://www.standard.net/Guest-Commentary/2014/12/20/Grading-the-wrong-things-in-public-education.html
Teacher Defense Association Seeks Reinstatement of Educator Fired for Refusing to Administer Tests
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Utah-Teacher-Defense-Association/733485876728516

 

Common Core Tests Steal Joy Out of Reading
http://www.alternet.org/how-newest-high-stakes-tests-are-stealing-joy-reading-our-kids?akid=12579.32230.NKFXSG&rd=1&src=newsletter1028778&t=11

 

More States Drop Out of PARCC Testing Consortium
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mercedes-schneider/parcc-attrition-from-2011_b_6364458.html

 

Arne Duncan’s World of Denial
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-greene/arne-duncans-denial_b_6336960.html

 

Duncan and Other “Reformers” Should Apologize
http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2014/12/thompson-the-power-of-the-words-im-sorry.html

 

Teachers Cal for 360-Degree Accountability
http://www.livingindialogue.com/teacher-team-offers-new-vision-responsibility/

 

One Public School Teacher’s Open Letter to America
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-america-from-a-public-school-teacher–2

 

Pushing Back Against High-Stakes for Students with Disabilities
http://www.aft.org/ae/winter2014-2015/tanis

 

Bad Assed Teachers Push Sec. Duncan on Test Misuse for Students with Disabilities
http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-badass-teachers-association-open.html

 

Pearson and the Assessment Problem
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-cobb/pearson-and-the-assessmen_b_6343602.html

 

 

 

Bob Schaeffer, Public Education Director
FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing
office- (239) 395-6773 fax- (239) 395-6779
mobile- (239) 699-0468
web- http://www.fairtest.org

Categories Education Reform, Testing

NC: Why Would Senator Berger Hurt His Own District?

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 //
19

State Senator Phil Berger (and president pro tem of the North Carolina State Senate has championed budget cuts that hurt the public schools in his district. He has also championed charter schools, which have minimal accountability. Stuart Egan, a North Carolina teacher, explains what appears to be inexplicable:

“It’s getting deeper here in North Carolina. Literally.

“A recent news story in the Winston-Salem Journal highlighted once again that North Carolina’s General Assembly is bent on starving our public schools into submission with lack of funds and shortage of resources – even the most basic of necessities like toilet paper.

“Danielle Battaglia reports that the Rockingham County school system is literally having to rob “Peter to pay Paul” just to keep schools open and functioning. Classes lack textbooks; copy paper is unaffordable; basic janitorial supplies cannot be bought. You can read about that here: http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/rockingham-county-schools-short-on-the-basics/article_61b15a34-bcfd-5407-83a4-86a2830c5ab2.html.

“One really big irony here is that Rockingham County is the home of our current and newly reelected NCGA Senate President Pro Tem, Phil Berger, Sr. He was one of the champions of the current state budget that is crippling the very schools he serves, especially the ones in his hometown of Eden, NC. That current budget also is supporting the exponential growth of charter schools which are able to take public funds, surreptitiously hide how the money is spent while escaping oversight and eluding state standards that are in constant flux.

“One of those charter schools, Providence Charter, gained final approval from the state board this year to open in Rockingham County and will possibly enroll 500 students. Rockingham County Public high schools only have around 4200 students total. That amounts to well over 10% of available students being siphoned off to a school that can claim to be a public institution in order to get state funds, but then assert itself as a private entity so that it cannot be audited with the same transparency as public schools are. The fact that many who start and operate charter schools are financially motivated is not a secret. What makes this one charter school especially suspicious is that it is co-founded by Phil Berger, Jr., the state senator’s son. You can read about that here: http://www.newsadvance.com/rockingham_now/news/providence-charter-officially-approved-to-open/article_06f3390c-7976-11e3-904c-0019bb30f31a.html?mode=jqm.

“When small school districts lose numbers like Rockingham County, they also lose the ability to petition for adequate funds. Imagine what happens to a school system when it loses over ten percent of its students; the financial impact can be staggering. Textbooks cannot be bought; facilities cannot be maintained. Bathrooms lack toilet paper. Students suffer. Communities stagnate.

“Providence Charter in Eden, NC will be the first charter high school in Rockingham County, but there already exists a charter middle school, Bethany Community Middle School. Who is on the board of that school? Yes, Phil Berger, Jr. In essence, Sen. Berger is allowing and enabling his own son to weaken the very public schools in his home district.

“This is not only a conflict of interest, but a growing trend to “reform” public education here in North Carolina. It would make more sense to take all of the resources, energy, and funds that would be siphoned off to the charter schools and work to improve the public schools that already exist. It seems to me that an elected official would make sure that as many people in his district as possible benefit from tax-payer money, maybe even enough to get some toilet paper and even new textbooks in schools that actually reflect the curriculum (which is about to change again).

“What hurts the most is that we as citizens keep electing these people to office and allow them to do detrimental things to our public schools under the guise of civic service and school choice. And it’s not just a school level problem; it’s an overall education problem.

“We as North Carolinians are not educating ourselves well enough to sift through political doublespeak and partisan propaganda. We are voting on perceptions and not truths. But it is hard to know the truth when facts are covered and avenues to learn are blocked and tampered with. What occurs is an environment where personalities are placed before principles. That causes people to suffer, especially our students.

“For example, last August a legislative assistant for Rep. Tim Moore named Nancy Garriss had an exchange with a veteran teacher on the phone and referred to the teacher as an “idiot” for even questioning the treatment of public education in the new state budget. This did not go unnoticed (https://dianeravitch.net/2014/08/09/what-north-carolina-teachers-say-about-that-historic-pay-raise/). Yet once again, North Carolinians in Cleveland County, NC selected Rep .Tim Moore to go back to Raleigh and in another example of cruel irony, he was just elected by his GOP peers as the new House Speaker of the NC General Assembly to replace Thom Tillis, who defeated the incumbent Kay Hagan for the US Senate. Less than half of registered voters in North Carolina came to the polls for these past midterm elections and the results were not favorable to public schools. But that could change.

“The operative word here is “midterm.” As soon as one election cycle ends, another ramps up and begins to take shape, and this next one can be a great time to take back our public schools. Historically, more registered voters go to the polls during presidential and gubernatorial election years. And all NCGA members will again be campaigning (or not) to be sent back to Raleigh. Imagine if just over half of the registered voters in North Carolina went to the polls, then people who champion public education could be put into positions to help our students.

“Look at this metaphorically. As a teacher, I look at midterm grades as a marker of sorts. It is not the final course grade, but an indication of what work needs to be done and a way to reflect on how teaching and learning can be improved. Our midterm grades in North Carolina are not stellar by any means. Declining support of public schools, lack of medical insurance coverage for those who need it most, voting restrictions, and lost revenue only begin to explain what North Carolina faces. Yet, it can change. The “final” grade can be much better. I just hope no more damage occurs in our state before we learn the lesson.

“By then we may need more than toilet paper to clean it up.”

Stuart Egan, NBCT

West Forsyth High School

Clemmons, NC

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, North Carolina

NC: What State Senator Berger Did to His Own District

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 //
20

Chris Fitzsimon describes what happened to the public schools in State Senator Phil Berger’s home district because of the budget cuts he pushed. Some schools can’t pay for textbooks, some can’t afford copy paper or toilet paper. Inspired by Republican and Tea Party rhetoric, voters rejected a quarter-cent increase in the sales tax.

Who cares about the children?

Categories Budget Cuts, Funding, North Carolina

Schneider: A Celebration of the Néw Orleans “Miracle”?

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 //
4

2015 marks the 10-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the city of Néw Orleans and destroyed many public schools. This was the event that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan memorably called “the best thing” that ever happened to the schools of Néw Orleans.

So now it is time for a research conference about 10 years of education “reform” in Néw Orleans, which will be hosted by a new research group, funded by the pro-charter Arnold Foundation.

Mercedes Schneider, researcher and teacher in Louisiana, describes the conference here, as well as the origins of the all-charter Recovery School District. The media like to portray the Nola reforms as a great success. Schneider says the claims of a “miracle district” are false. Thus, one would expect the conference to feature strong voices on both sides of the issue, to debate the evidence.

Unfortunately, the best-informed local critics were not invited to speak. The strongest academic critic of the reform narrative—Kristen Buras–was not invited to speak. Buras published a scholarly study of the reforms earlier this year. She wrote it from the perspective of the “grassroots,” the students, communities, teachers, and local traditions. She started her in-depth analysis of the reforms in 2005. She was invited to sit in the audience.

This is Schneider at her best, drawing links among the players and assessing the overall significance of the event.

Categories Charter Schools, New Orleans

York City, Pennsylvania, Outrage!

By dianeravitch
December 27, 2014 //
27

Last Friday, a judge cleared the way to put the York City schools into receivership, meaning under state control. The Pennsylvania Department of Education previously announced its intention to hand over the entire school district to the for-profit charter chain Charter Schools of America.

Be it noted that today’s education “reformers” don’t much care for democracy. They would rather turn public schools over to a for-profit corporation that siphons off 20% in management fees and pays itself outlandish rental fees rather than trust parents and local citizens to do what’s best for their children.

Choice? There will be no “choice” for the families of York City. Their children will have to attend a charter school whose headquarters are in Florida. Yes, it is the death of local control and democracy in York City.

The news story says:

“State officials have said they would, if approved for a receivership, bring in Charter Schools USA to operate the district.

“So this means York likely will be the first city in the Commonwealth – and only one in the nation – where public education is provided exclusively by a private company.

The Pennsylvania State Education Association plans to appeal, according to a statement released by the statewide teachers union immediately after the ruling Friday morning.

“York’s citizens don’t want this, the elected school board doesn’t want this, and parents and educators don’t want this,” said PSEA President Michael Crossey.

“Citing the district’s financial problems, PDE declared York schools in recovery status and appointed David Meckley chief recovery officer, or CRO, in late 2012.

“State law triggers a receivership petition if officials in a recovery school district act against the wishes of the CRO or in violation of their approved recovery plan, which is supposed to be collaboratively developed.

“In this case, one action was the board’s refusal to vote on a charter school operator contract until the company provided more information.

“The other was its vote on a teachers and staff union contract that didn’t cut as much as set out in the recovery plan.”

This is what we would expect from the outgoing Corbett administration, which actively promoted privatization.

What will the new Tom Wolf administration do?

Here are some thoughts from Mark Miller, a local school board member in Pennsylvania and an officer of the Pennsylvania School Boards Assiciation:

“PSBA was disqualified as a party of interest in the case despite the fact we are a state chartered agency with a membership of 4,500 elected officials sworn to uphold the constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which guarantees a free and appropriate public education to all children. On that count alone, how can the court force any child to attend a charter school?

“Linebaugh also disqualified NAACP, PASA and twenty-two parents of children with special needs who combined their money to retain special education counsel. Commonwealth Court upheld the ruling on NAACP, PSBA, PASA and parents did not appeal as we were saving our war chest for this new fight.

“There was never any question in my mind that Linebaugh was going to hand the district over to privateers. Governor Elect Wolf is a resident of York County and a political ally of the Receiver (David Meckley). While he did ask for the courts to leave this matter wait until his term of office begins, he has been absolutely silent on his position in this matter.

“Wolf’s wife Frances resigned from the Board of York Academy Charter School two months before he declared for office. some observers think that CSUSA will sub-contract to York Academy and CSMI (Charter School Management Inc is Vahan Gureghian’s company) as CSUSA does not have the resources at hand to run these schools.

“York Academy and CSMI have been silent and CSUSA non committal http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_27186647/charter-schools-usa-mum-york-city-schools-special (Although Vahan Guerghian is building a $28MM mansion within a 45 minute drive to CSUSA headquarters in Florida.

“Obviously, we are going to file an appeal of the ruling handed down today.”

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, For-Profit, Pennsylvania
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »