A reader who goes by the name “Old Teacher” offered this update on events in Nevada:
Here in Nevada our governor has proposed a tax hike, not to support our existing schools, but rather, to support charter schools, vouchers, and best of all, a new statewide achievement district. The proposed achievement district comes with all the latest reformy goodness; freedom from collective bargaining, the ability to fully utilize TFA instead of fully trained teachers, and, the highest paid administrator in the state, a man rejected by two districts, who by law can not evaluate any educator or administrator, Pedro Martinez. Because such goodness is brought to us by near one percent millionaires of Hispanic descent, Messrs Sandoval and Martinez surely have the best interests of minorities at heart. The fact that Mr. Martinez is an accountant and has been trained by the Broad academy guarantees the success of this venture. The only saving grace of this proposed fiasco is that Nevada’s nut wing legislature will not likely approve taxes for anything, even their own brand of graft. The schools will continue to suffer here, but the vultures won’t get to start early either. They will have to wait until our slow agonizing death ends.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow! Just when you think you’ve heard everything, you hear this. Ohio is out of control too. Kasich was reelected, so I have no idea what Ohio’s education will look like at the end of his dictatorship. Kasich would love to be president. Where do all of these mean, dictator like guys like Kasich, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and Scott Walker come from? You know they would love to see democracy end. They are scary to me.
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The Ohio charter school regulation we were promised is looking incredibly weak:
“The legislation, among other things, would prohibit charter school sponsors from selling services to their schools, ban vendors from serving on a school’s board of directors, and require board members to disclose family members doing business with the school.
Another provision of the bill would seek to stop poor-performing schools from moving from one sponsor to another to stay open – so-called “sponsor-hopping.”
It’s a joke. Charter lobbyists will now trade this “regulation” they drafted for increased funding, so we’ll get the worst of both-increased funding and incredibly weak regulation.
The worst part to me isn’t what it’s in this newspaper piece. but what ISN’T in it.
There is absolutely no mention of public schools in Ohio. The schools where 90% of children attend are not even worth a political one-liner when Ohio lawmakers issue a press release. Our schools are completely missing from the agenda.
It’s kind of amazing when you start to look not at what’s IN ed reformer press releases, but what’s missing: what’s missing is public schools.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/01/charter_schools_student_grants.html
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Chiara, I couldn’t agree with you more. My husband and I, born and raised in Ohio (both of our families going back 5 generations in Ohio), are very saddened with what is happening in Ohio with about everything. Ohio’s legislature is not taking care of Ohio schools..and Ohio has become a high taxed state which is hard to live in. I know Governor Strickland is horrified at what Kasich has done to our Ohio schools.
We are so disillusioned with Ohio that we honestly do not want our children to live here in their adulthood. We know that they cannot find a perfect state, but there are better states than Ohio. I can’t stand the damage that Kasich has done to Ohio. It makes me so upset to think that his daughters (because they are privileged) do not have to live with the damage that their father has created in Ohio schools. My one child, still in school, has to suffer. It is so unfair. I couldn’t sleep at night if I were John Kasich. I hope he likes very hot places. I wouldn’t want to be him.
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Here’s another press release from Ohio lawmakers. Try to find anything related to “public schools”. Once again the entire focus is charter schools and vouchers.
They just have absolutely no interest in our schools. Missing from the agenda.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/01/drug_prison_charter_school_ref.html#incart_m-rpt-1
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Thanks so much, Chiara…I just read it. Unbelievable. They have no clue. They give millions to charter schools…our public schools suffer…and it is becoming so expensive to get a Bachelor’s degree at universities in Ohio. LIke I said before, there are states which I think do not have a cost of living as high as Ohio’s. I am so disillusioned with Ohio, and I certainly do not expect my children to stay here when they are adults. I read somewhere that there are more people leaving Ohio than coming to Ohio. We sure see why. Thanks, Chiara,…I really enjoy your informative blogs.
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Perhaps the slogan for the new statewide achievement district in Nevada should be—
Every Parent’s Choice! Freedom From Excellence!
If the shoe fits…
😎
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Having worked in that state, teachers have virtually no real protections anyway, but collective bargaining should still be allowed in the remote chance a teacher can keep his or her by hiring an outside lawyer. If the governor wants to get rid of collective bargaining, it should be removed for principals and other supervisory district personnel because they are management, not rank and file. Currently it is virtually impossible to fire a principal because of the extra layers of protection offered by their associations. The money should be used to hire many more classified employees to do playground duty, office support, and classroom support so that teachers can do the jobs they were hired to do.
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Left out the word “job.”
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The person writing the excerpted post should have noted Martinez was illegally fired by WCSD, just as I was, but left as a result of terms agreed to in the mediation. He also wasn’t “rejected” by CCSD but left there to take the Washoe superintendent job. A little facts would help.
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Other than being in the right sect of good old boys, he had no support from the rank and file in CCSD. I will stand by my statement. Yes, he was illegally fired by Washoe County as their superintendent. Prior to that, he was in the Washoe county upper echelon and was under fire for his job performance. He then came to Clark County. The only support he has is in the reform sector. Those that have worked under him were not impressed.
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P.s. He also left Washoe County with a $700,000 dollar settlement. You, Susan, did not receive anything of the sort I am sure. Furthermore, He was rejected for a job here as he applied to Washoe County and Philidelphia, where he was a finalist.
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Also, it’s not just “other states”. It’s other countries.
I wondered if there’s a word for the opposite of “privatization” and I don’t think there is because they seem to be struggling to describe what “undoing this privatization disaster” involves 🙂
Also, “undoing privatization” is ALSO called ed reform. It works either way!
“We need good teachers with good salaries, with decent working conditions. We also need for schools to go back to the state … and of course we think it’s of the utmost importance that nobody is left out of the university,” she said.
Months of massive student protests, demanding major changes to an education system that was privatized under then-dictator General Augusto Pinochet, helped shape the 2013 electoral campaign and propel Bachelet into power. ”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/27/us-chile-education-reform-idUSKBN0L01W620150127
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I believe that the governor has flat-out said that he wants to emulate Florida in education policy.
In the last legislative session, 2013 (legislators in NV meet only every other year), Republicans tried to get rid of collective bargaining, but there were enough Democrats to stop that.
This past fall, voters allowed Republicans to take over the state legislature, putting NV in the position of having a Republican governor/house/senate for the first time since 1929.
The Clark County School District, (fifth-largest in the country, last I heard, and centered in Las Vegas) has had trouble filling all of its teaching positions during the past decade. They weren’t all filled this year.
Teachers have been fleeing already, many retiring earlier than they had wanted. My guess is that soon the expensive teachers will start being fired in a big way. (Remember, too, there are no state income taxes in NV, which applies not only for persons, but also to corporations.)
But that’s okay; TFA and charters will save or replace the massive CCSD!
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Governor Sandoval cut a billion dollars from education. Any money he finds for education is not additional money until he gets past the point where he has returned the funds he has already cut.
Now he wants to be the conquering hero and raise taxes on businesses to fund $800 million in reforms. The irony is that this is what teachers put on the ballot – $800 million – and business spents millions and millions to defeat that ballot measure. And the Democrats and Republcans all fought it because businesses “could not afford 1% “.
I’m afraid it might be a session of $800 million in reforms . . . without money if the Governor cannot quell a civil war that is raging within this own racist and psychotic political party.
The Governor wants all sorts of crazy stuff including appointed school boards – all to better reform education.
And Pedro Martinez, from Chicago land of Rahm, was fired in Washoe. Apparently Pedro fired a chief of school police who then disclosed that Pedro was not what he declared to be – an accountant. He majored in accounting but was not an accountant in Nevada. Unfortunately the Washoe school board did not fire Pedro Martinez in a way that prevented him from suing for a very large sum of cash. The irony is that Pedro left Las Vegas under the Dwight Jones cloud . . .he was on the ropes in Vegas too. But he’s a favorite reformer who is not scared to get his hands dirty roughing up staff.
I could go on and on but it is a huge mess.
Now Pedro will be in charge as a superintendent of a huge district stretching from every edge of the state – with possible 100 or some large number of schools to be reformed. The plans keep changing daily. So I will predict my racism bigoted state will reform only schools where large numbers of minorities live.
And Eli Broad and Elaine Wynn will be paying Pedro Martinez’s salary – privately.
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Angie,
Reformers don’t like elected school boards. They prefer state control or mayoral control. Democracy scares them.
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I cannot tell you how scary Nevada education is right now. Everyday there is another “drastic” change being made.
No more elections for school boards.
No more school districts. They plan to break up the fifth largest district. While putting a bunch of rural districts together?
3,000 teachers interviewed for turnarounds- some in the paper – some not. Every other week another list with different schools due to be privatized. One set of schools due for “drastic” change. A week later only schools with mistly minorities due for “drastic” change.
Collective bargaining on the table.
Retirement pensions on the table.
Merit pay and 50% of teacher evaluations being student scores.
A completely Republican controlled legislature with a Republican Governor.
It’s not good.
I am watching destruction of all of Nevada public schools while crazytown applaudes. I grew up here and got a first rate education. We are a unique state and we are imploding.
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