Archives for the month of: May, 2015
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The End of Separation of Church and State?

By dianeravitch
May 19, 2015 //
58

Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a tuition tax credit bill that is widely recognized as a backdoor voucher. The tax credits would benefit wealthy individuals and corporations. Cuomo has said this measure is a high-priority for him, and he has campaigned with Catholic clerics and in Orthodox Jewish communities.

The rationale, as with all privatization proposals, is to help low-income students escape “failing schools.” In fact, the plan will drain at least $150 million annually from the state’s education funds, which will harm far more low-income students than those who depart for religious schools.

Bruce Baker has taken a close look at the way the tuition tax credit actually works, and it is very disturbing. He notes that an Orthodox Jewish sect created a tiny village in Néw York called Kiryas Joel. It was started in the late 1970s, is populated mainly by Satmar Jews, whose first language is Yiddish. The village sought recognition from the state as an independent school district, which would have been exclusively religious in nature. In 1989, the legislature complied, but the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the law.

Baker quotes this summary:

“In a 6-to-3 decision, the Court held that the statute’s purpose was to exclude all but those who lived in and practiced the village enclave’s extreme form of Judaism. This exclusionary intent failed to respect the Establishment Clause’s requirement that states maintain a neutral position with respect to religion, because it clearly created a school zone which excluded those who were non-religious and/or did not practice Samtar Hasidism. Indeed, the very essence of the Establishment Clause is that government should not demonstrate a preference for one religion over another, or religion over non-religion in general.”

Ironically, as Baker shows, Cuomo’s proposal would give Kiryas Joel what it lost at the Supreme Court.

Folks, as vouchers and tuition tax credits spread, we are heading into uncharted waters: the state will subsidize Protestant schools, Catholic schools, Jewish schools, Muslim schools, evangelical schools, and schools of every other religion and sect.

Is this about better education? What do you think?

Our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and the Amendments with full knowledge of the religious wars that had devastated Europe for centuries. They wanted Americans to have freedom of religion but they did not want the state to establish or sponsor any religion. They were wiser than us.

Categories Religion, Separation of church and state, Vouchers

BREAKING NEWS: Pearson Loses Most of Texas’ Testing Contract

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
52

Pearson just lost most of its Texas testing business.

For the first time in three decades, a new company is poised to develop and administer the state-required exams Texas students begin taking in the third grade.

The state is in negotiations with Educational Testing Service, or ETS, to take over the bulk of the four-year, $340 million student assessment contract, the Texas Education Agency announced Monday. Company Vice President John Oswald said ETS is “privileged and honored” to land the work. Final contracts are still being negotiated.

The London-based Pearson Education has held the state’s largest education-related contract — most recently, a five-year, $468 million deal to provide state exams through 2015 — since Texas began requiring state student assessments in the 1980s. Under the new agreement, the company would still develop the state’s assessments designed for special needs and foreign students. That portion of the contract is worth about $60 million.

Here is the puzzling question: Why did it cost $468 million for a five-year contract with Pearson when New York State pays Pearson “only” $32 million for a five-year contract? Does New York have smarter negotiators? Does Pearson have better lobbyists in Texas than in New York? Does New York get Texas’s used questions? True, Texas has more children than New York, but not 15 times more. Can anyone explain?

Categories Pearson, Standardized Testing, Texas

Los Angeles: Zimmer Blows His Stack

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
30

Steve Zimmer, a second term member of the LAUSD school board, became furious because of the charter industry’s vicious attacks on Bennett Kayser. And why should he not be furious? The charter industry accused Kayser of being biased against Latinos and mocked his disability (Parkinson’s).

Here is the speech that Zimmer gave:

————————————————–

STEVE ZIMMER:

“This (election) is NOT just about Board District 5.
This is about the ENTIRE CONTROL and FUTURE of LAUSD.

“This is about CONTROL. Make NO mistake about it.
The control of the (LAUSD) school board hangs in the balance.

“And listen…. you don’t have to applaud on this line,
but you can.
— (CROWD LAUGHS)

“I have a lot of dear friends in the room,
and sometimes we have disagreed,
and sometimes we look at an issue,
we see it from a different lens,
and sometimes there are painful moments.

“That’s true for me.
That’s been true for Jackie (Goldberg) in her service.
That’s been true for Bennett.

“But the difference between the people
who believe that it’s ALL of us TOGETHER—
—that it’s ALL of us working together,
that… that… that our employees,
that our teachers are our greatest partners.

“NOT our enemies,
NOT … NOT… litigants to be challenged in court,
NOT … NOT…. people to be blamed for
the crisis that is facing our children,
but the VERY PEOPLE who can
lift our children out of this crisis.

“Even if we disagree on some issues,
the difference between
the folks like Bennett Kayser,
the folks like Jackie Goldberg,
Jeff Horton before her…

“ … the folks… the folks who have tried
to fight the fight over the years that
I am proud to associate myself with.

“The difference between THAT and…

“And what the folks who are
trying to destroy Bennett Kayser—
NOT BEAT Bennett Kayser—DESTROY him
AS A PERSON, not just as a political figure, but
DESTROY him as a person.

“The difference between…
we who believe that it’s ALL OF US together.

“and …

“those who believe that it’s ‘us against them’…

“It’s NIGHT and DAY.

“We CANNOT let them
take control of the school board
because if they take control of the school board,
they’ll have control of who becomes the
next Superintendent of this district.

“They’ll have control over the budget.
They’ll have control over the policies.
They‘ll have control over the schools.

“And it took us too long for us to realize it—
Bennett realized it WAY before I did,
and I give him credit for it EVERY day—

“What John Deasy tried to do to this school district.

“He tried to bring public education DOWN.
And the MISIS crisis was NO accident.
That is… that WAS INTENTIONAL, because
if you read their websites,
if you read what they’re trying to do…

“ ‘Stability’ is an ugly word.

“ ‘Disruption’ is what it is about.

“But WE know
WE the teachers
WE the principals
WE the school workers
WE KNOW
WE THE PARENTS
WE KNOW that disruption causes
REAL collateral damage
to REAL children EVERY DAY!

“And Bennett and I have been
about trying to re-STABILIZE and
re-HUMANIZE our schools.

“And at the end of the day,
we are about an ALL-kids agenda—
ALL kids, NOT SOME kids.

“And if you go to a door, and if you’re on a phone.
and people say,

“ ‘Why should I care?‘
“ ‘Why should I vote?’

“PUBLIC education is about
EVERY CHILD that comes to the
schoolhouse door—those who are the most gifted,
and those who have the most DIFFICULT
of challenges that are facing them.

“What makes public education PUBLIC education is
that it’s EVERY child that comes to the schoolhouse door,
and no one, NO ONE—NOT ME, NOT anyone else—
has been a better champion of that than Bennett Kayser.

“That said…
the MOST reprehensible,
the most DISGUSTING thing that they have done
is to somehow challenge—that while
Bennett has struggled, and continues to struggle
valiantly, publically, VICTORIOUSLY
against Parkinson’s disease,
they have SOMEHOW THOUGHT that it is okay
to suggest… to suggest that somehow,
because of this struggle, he is incapable of serving.

“Every … ANY one of us could go to a neurologist
some time over the next year,
and come out with that diagnosis—ANY ONE of us.

“And thank God we have Bennett Kayser to
show us that this is NOT a death sentence,
that it’s NOT a way of having to fade into
the background,
that you can serve with pride,
with integrity,
with intelligence
with capability.

“And DAMN THEM, DAMN THEM
for questioning that!
Damn them for questioning that!

“Don’t let that win!

“Because I’ve known Bennett for over 20 years,
but in our private conversations…
what he now knows is that there is a new
empathy for what our children with
the most challenges face.

“THERE IS NO ONE MORE APPROPRIATE
to serve on the Board of Education.
than someone who INTIMATELY
and PERSONALLY understands those challenges
because he will NEVER turn way from them.

“So these next three weeks, Bennett…
these next three weeks…
they are about you, but they are also about
the future of public education
in this country, and in this city.

“We will NOT let this stand, Bennett,
and we WILL stand by you.

“But the last thing I want to say, Bennett, is….

“Thank you for your courage, for enduring this
on behalf of all of us, and most especially
on behalf of all the children who need you
the most.

“Thank you, Bennett!”

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Here’s where you can donate on-line to Bennett’s campaign:

http://www.bennett2015.com/donate-online.html

Here’s his website in general:

http://www.bennett2015.com/

Categories Los Angeles

Education Advocates Unite Against Governor Cuomo’s Tax Breaks for the Wealthy

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
25

For Immediate Release:

Contact:
Wendy Liberatore, Statewide Communications Coordinator, AQE
wendy@aqeny.org
(518) 432-5315 ext. 102; cell (518) 491-0454

PRESS RELEASE
Parent, Religious, Labor Groups and Education Advocates Fight to Block Gov. Cuomo’s Flawed Tax Break for Wealthy

ALBANY (May, 18, 2015) – Education advocates, religious and labor organizations and parent groups have joined forces to block Gov. Cuomo’s education tax credit proposal that he has deceitfully dubbed Parental Choice in Education Act.

Disguised as a way to provide needy children with a private school education, the act is a tax credit designed to reimburse wealthy donors who want to contribute large sums of money to private schools. Under the act, state taxpayers will reimburse 75 percent of the donor’s contributions. In the first year alone, the act will cost the state $150 million.

The three dozen organizations decry the tax break as one that siphons taxpayer money from public schools and funnels it into the pockets of millionaires and billionaires. As part of the effort to block the act, the groups will launch a social media campaign and will release more information on the tax break in the forthcoming weeks.

The groups have also released a video that underscores how the act will further burden taxpayers and debilitate public schools.

The long list of opponents to the act are: A. Philip Randolph Institute, AFSCME, Advocates for Children of New York, Alliance for Quality Education, Balcony, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Citizen Action of New York, Citizen Budget Commission, CSEA, DC 37-AFSCME, La Fuente, League of Women Voters of New York State, Long Island Jobs with Justice, Long Island Progressive Coalition, Make the Road, NAACP-New York State Chapter, New York City Council of School Supervisors and Administrators, New York Civil Liberties Union, New York State AFL-CIO, New York State Association of School Business Officials, New York State Federation of School Administrators, New York State Parent Teacher Association, New York State School Boards Association, New York State United Teachers, New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, Public Employees Federation, Reform Jewish Voice of New York State, Rochester – Finger Lakes Pride @ Work , Rural Schools Association of New York State, School Administrators Association of New York State, Strong Economy for All, The Black Institute, The Council of School Superintendents, United Federation of Teachers, and Working Families Party.

“New York cannot afford another poorly targeted tax break,” said Carol Kellermann, President of the Citizen Budget Commission. “The Education Tax Credit would be a costly subsidy for private education.”

“We are concerned that the proposed education tax credit will allow individuals to divert money from the tax stream and send it to favored schools, scholarships and other programs, including religious programming, with no public oversight,” said Robb Smith, Executive Director of Interfaith Impact of New York State. “This bill is designed to permit wealthy donors to make an end run around the New York constitution, which prohibits taxpayer funding of religious education. In the end, the taxpayers will have to make up for the money that is being diverted. We believe in the wisdom of the separation of church and state. We want to see New York fully fund its public school system, not take even more money away from our schools through this misguided legislation.”

“The Reform Jewish Movement affirms the deep commitment of the Reform Movement to the principle of separation of religion and the state which has safeguarded religious liberty for all in this country,” said Barbara Zaron, co-chair of Reform Jewish Voice of New York State (RJV). “This commitment and an equally deep commitment to public education as the cornerstone of the American democratic process drives us to affirm our opposition to any form of governmental aid to elementary and secondary schools under the supervision or control of any religious denomination. Consistent with this traditional opposition of Reform Judaism, we oppose the proposals to allow tax credits for tuition paid and/or scholarships awarded to students of non-public schools.”

“We have yet to see any proof that the education tax credit would address the fiscal issues that face religious schools,” said Barbara Bartoletti, Legislative Director for the League of Women Voters in New York State. “Public schools students should not have to pay the price. We cannot drain public dollars to benefit privately operated schools.”
“Our public schools are called upon to fulfill our state constitution’s promise of a sound basic education for all children, whatever their circumstances, wherever they come from, whenever they arrive,”said Robert Reidy, Executive Director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. “State government’s first obligation needs to be to honor its promises to public schools, by ending the Gap Elimination Adjustment and rebuilding the Foundation Aid formula – not to launch an expansive new commitment to private schools serving only some students.”

“Providing wealthy campaign contributors tax breaks while public school students are deprived of education resources is outrageous,” said Karen Scharff, Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York. “This plan is nothing but another million-dollar giveaway of public money to super wealthy donors who fund political campaigns.”

“The Governor’s new Parental Choice in Education Act is a veiled attempt to give away our tax dollars to his campaign donors,” said Jasmine Gripper, Legislative Coordinator for the Alliance for Quality Education. “Why should New Yorkers pay for wealthy donors contributions to private schools? This is a multi-million dollar expense for the state and will divert more money away from already struggling public schools. School funding policies should not be made on the whim to a handful of wealthy individuals and corporations. Instead of prioritizing his campaign donors, the Governor should be focused on supporting our public schools, which serve all kids.”

“The private school tax credit scheme Governor Cuomo is pushing is really just more Albany business as usual: the seven billionaires behind the ‘Educational Fund’ gave $4.6 million dollars in campaign cash to get themselves a big tax break,” said Michael Kink, Executive Director of Strong Economy for All Coalition. “Their ‘educational fund’ seems to have done more educating of influential politicians — particularly Dean Skelos and the Senate Republicans — than of students.

“New York needs to drop the reverse Robin Hood shenanigans and stop trying to fund private and religious schools at the expense of public schools,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “Education is the foundation for future success for both New York’s children and the state’s financial well-being. Transferring public money to private schools undermines both. It also violates the foundational principle that bars the government from endorsing religion.”

“People make a conscious decision to pay for a private school education instead of using public schools, just like they make a decision to use a private golf course over a public one, or a private beach club over a public swimming pool, are we to subsidize every person’s decision to use a private facility over a public one, where would it end,” said Michael Borges, Executive Director of the New York State Association of School Business Officials.

“Despite its new name, the governor’s education tax credit scheme is essentially a voucher program designed to reward the hedge fund billionaires who contribute to his campaign,” said New York State United Teachers President Karen E. Magee. “The fact is, the governor’s misguided plan would only aggravate the challenges that confront our poorest districts by siphoning critical funding away from students and schools that are most in need.”

“The state’s priority should not be giving tax breaks to the wealthy, but rather investing in its public schools to ensure all students have the resources needed to succeed,” said New York State United Teachers Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta. “Given that one-third of our school districts in 2015-2016 will be operating with less aid than six years ago, our focus must be on adequately funding public education — not rewarding wealthy campaign contributors at the expense of children in need.”

“This tax credit is just another scheme to reward billionaires. It gives them the power to send money to their favorite private schools, and takes a big chunk out of their tax bill,” said Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers. “At the same time, it drains money from public schools. Supporters can use all the smoke and mirrors that they want, but in the end this is scam that will hurt public school students.”

“New York’s first obligation is to use tax dollars to adequately fund public education. Yet, there are great disparities in school district financial resources throughout the state. Lawmakers must remedy that situation before they provide tax incentives that would benefit non-public schools,” said Timothy G. Kremer, Executive director of the New York State School Boards Association.

“For New York State to consider diverting available funds away from public education while it has a law that unconstitutionally withholds funds from school districts is unconscionable,”said David A. Little, Executive Director of the Rural Schools Association of New York State. “If that the state cannot afford its public educational system, it certainly can’t afford a second one.”

“Our first priority must be to fully fund our public schools,” New York State AFL-CIO President Mario Cilento said. “We need a financial commitment to provide our public education system with the necessary resources needed to ensure all children get the educational opportunities they deserve. An investment in our public schools is an investment in our future.”

###

Categories New York, Vouchers

Los Angeles School Board Race Will Determine Future of Public Education in That City

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
12

A story by Annie Gilbertson of public radio station KPCC reviews the dramatic increase in national spending on local school board races by the charter industry.

 

Billionaires like Reed Hastings (Netflix), Eli Broad of Los Angeles, and Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City have spent millions to help candidates take control of the city’s public school system and to expand privatization. L.A. already has more students in charter schools than any other city.

 

Political action committees are spending 15 times the cash they did six years ago ahead of the Los Angeles Unified school board election on Tuesday.

 

Just this spring, more than $4.5 million flowed to PACs for glossy mail fliers, robocalls and ads on Spanish language radio in support or against school board candidates.

 

With runoffs set in west San Fernando Valley, east Los Angeles and South Bay board districts, PAC organizers hope to swing the ideological composition of the seven-member school board to their side, potentially altering the direction of the 650,00-student district and its $7.3 billion budget.

 

The stakes in this year’s election are especially high because the new board will select the district’s next superintendent. His or her leadership of the country’s second largest school district will be closely watched both statewide and nationally.

 

Donors looking to influence education policy may be migrating from national to local elections where their dollars can have a greater impact, said Raphael Sonenshein, director of the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State L.A.

 

On one side are the billionaires who want privatization. On the other are the teachers who want reduced class sizes, ,the arts, and full services for students.

 

 

Categories Los Angeles

Nashville: Time for a RESET? Bring in the Reformers!

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
11

Apparently Nashville has been far too slow to privatize its public schools. Community pushback has annoyed the power structure, which wants more charters faster, even though the celebrated Achievement School District (mainly in Memphis) has yet to reach its goal of converting the lowest 5% of schools in the state into the top 25% within five years (by turning them into charter schools, of course). Naturally, reformers in other states want to copy the ASD even though it has not yet been successful and may never be, just as they want to copy the New Orleans’ strategy of turning every school into a privately managed charter, even though most of the charters in NOLA are graded D or F by a charter-friendly State Education Department.

 

And so the establishment in Nashville has called for a RESET. Reform isn’t moving fast enough for them. They are impatient for more privatization. That means everyone should pay attention to the data. Who will assemble the data? Who else but the Parthenon Group, a consulting group of MBAs and TFAs who know how to fix school systems (they say). They will tell Nashville that their test scores are not high enough, their graduation rates are not high enough, and you can guess their remedies. Read Nashville parent blogger Dad Gone Wild on the Parthenon Group here. As Jersey Jazzman wrote recently, there is a difference between “facts,” even when they are real, and “truth,” which is how the facts are used to advance an agenda.

 

Dad Gone Wild refers to some of the recent work by Parthenon in Tennessee (read his piece to see the links):

 

To see more local evidence of the Parthenon Group’s work, we don’t even have to get on the internet. We just need to talk to the folks in Knoxville. That’s Rob Taylor of Knoxville talking about the Parthenon Group in the video above. In Knoxville, the school board commissioned the Parthenon Group to study their system and share their recommendations for improvement. Those recommendations included increasing class size and eliminating around 300 positions that included guidance counselors, psychologists, and librarians. It also produced the stunning comment that not all students are the same; some are more profitable than others. Knoxville paid over a million dollars for this brilliant advice.

 

In case you don’t want to look to the eastern part of the state, we can also look to the west in Memphis. Where a school district already $142 million in the red paid roughly $350k a month for the Parthenon Group’s expertise. The recommendation in Memphis? Merit pay for teachers with no added compensation for higher levels of education. A plan that has been proven ineffective countless times and that Memphis rejected as well. Starting to notice a pattern? Momma Bears, a Tennessee parent group, certainly did. So did another parent group Tennessee Parents.

 

The Parthenon Group’s missteps are not relegated to just K-12 education though. Some of you may be familiar with the Corinthian Colleges scandal. The Santa Ana company, one of the world’s largest for-profit college businesses, allegedly targeted low-income Californians through “aggressive marketing campaigns” that inaccurately represented job placement rates and school programs. Who touts Corinthian Colleges as one of their success stories and strongly recommended them to their investors? Why, none other than the Parthenon Group. Still not noticing a pattern? The pattern seems to be one of presenting ill conceived plans to clients.

 

Peter Greene read Dad Gone Wild and added his astute commentary on the RESET game in Nashville.

 

Green reminds us that Tennessee has long been way out front on the reformster wave. It was one of the first winners of Race to the Top funding and is often celebrated by Arne Duncan. It was the first state to hire a TFA alum, Kevin Huffman, as state commissioner (he has since left).

 

Greene writes:

 

Huffman, however, has moved on, gracefully jumping ship before he could be pushed off the plank. Late in 2014, his general incompetence and gracelessness had finally turned him into a large enough political liability to end his happy time as Tennessee Educhieftain.

 

Can’t We Just Start Over?

 

Lots of folks in power had loved Huffman and thought he had the right ideas. But the whole Common Core discussion had exploded in a welter of hard-right anti-gummint much dislike, and Huffman’s attempt to make every Tennessee teacher just a little poorer had not exactly won a lot of backing from that community, either.

 

So here comes the Nashville Public Education Foundation, a coalition of civic-minded folks that would really like to make a mark on public education as long as they don’t have to A) actually talk to or deal with people who work in public education or B) work through any of those democratically-elected institutions. We’ve seen this kind of foundation before (I ran across it most recently in York, PA, when local businessmen decided that they really wanted to dismantle public schools without actually having to run for office or convince the general public to go along.)

 

Watch their scrolling bank of happy quotes and you’ll see supportive words from Teach for America, the Chamber of Commerce, the mayor, a former governor, a parent, a CEO, the school director, the country music association foundation, and — wait? what! really??– Ben Folds.

 

The Foundation has had its fingers all over Nashville education, and that foundation has decided that what the city needs is to RESET. What the heck is that?

 

The mission of Project RESET (Reimagining Education Starts with Everyone at the Table) is to elevate the conversation on education as we approach a vital time in Nashville’s history. Led by the Nashville Public Education Foundation, with the support of Nashville’s Agenda and media assistance from The Tennessean, Project RESET will set the table for a larger, communitywide conversation about improving Nashville’s public schools.

 

The event, lauded by charter operators around Nashville, is coming up at the end of the month. How much fun will that be?

 

You know the old Will Rogers quote: “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggie’ while you look for a rock.” Remember this any time somebody is acting diplomatically toward you. Don’t listen to what they say; watch to see if they’re looking for a rock.

 

The rock in this case is the Parthenon Consulting Group.

 

Greene goes on to look closely at the record of the Parthenon Consulting Group. The quote above has links aplenty.

 

He adds:

 

What is blindingly clear is that when it comes to education, Parthenon is only interested in one topic– how to make money at it.

 

If your landlord says he’s called an outfit to come work on the problems in your building, and what you see pull up in front is a Demolition Specialists truck, you are the doggie. If you are a public school system and the Parthenon Group shows up to “help” you, you are the doggie. The Parthenon Group does not specialize in helping schools systems do a better job of educating students. The Parthenon Groups helps school systems turn into pieces that can be more easily replaced with profitable charter schools.

 

The long and short of it: powerful forces are on the move to replace public education with privatization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Nashville

Edward Johnson of Atlanta Joins the Honor Roll

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
4

Edward Johnston of Atlanta is the most persistent gadfly in that city. He regularly writes open letters to the school board and administrators, in an effort to hold them accountable. Johnston is an adherent of the philosophy of W. Edwards Deming; he believes in collaboration, not competition; in encouragement, not punishment. He believes in improving the system, rather than shaming individuals.

I have been on his email blast list for a few years. He is not a teacher. He is a public-spirited citizen. We need someone like him in every community to hold the powerful accountable.

Here is his latest open letter:

May 17, 2015

“Dear Superintendent Carstarphen and Atlanta Board of Education members:

“Regarding your:

“Dear Frederick Douglass High School Parents/Guardians:

“As we end the 2014-2015 school year there are changes occurring at Frederick Douglass High School. We want to make sure that you are informed and engaged in what is happening.

“There will be a new principal of Frederick Douglass High School for the 2015-2016 school year. Please be assured that students, parents, staff and community will remain a priority during this transition in leadership.

“Chief Academic Officer Dr. Carlton Jenkins and Associate Superintendent of High Schools Dr. Timothy Gadson III invite you and the community to attend a meeting on Wednesday, May 20, at 6 p.m. in the school’s auditorium to discuss and provide input into the future direction of the school.

“Frederick Douglass High School Auditorium
225 Hamilton E. Holmes Dr., NW 30318”

Ed Johnson writes in response:

I write to ask you to immediately publish to the Frederick Douglass High School public community, in particular, and to the Atlanta public community, at large, an explanation of your decision to place a new principal at Frederick Douglass High School next school year, 2015-2016. Please do this in consideration of the fact that Frederick Douglass High School’s current principal has been the school’s principal only this school year, 2014-2015. And please do this to demonstrate APS openness, transparency, and trustworthiness, with the pending Wednesday meeting with Drs. Carlton and Gadson notwithstanding.

In your explanation, please cite or otherwise cover beliefs, theories, research, vetted practices and any other details that support your decision, appropriately. And please explain both negative and positive effects you theorize student learning at Douglass High School will experience as a result of your decision, given the fact that you, the APS, have placed a new principal at Frederick Douglass High School every year or so for the past several years, seemingly always based on the school reform and accountability ideology that firing principals and teachers necessarily results in school improvement without harming the children or anyone else.

The Frederick Douglass High School community group Concerned Citizens for the Education Advancement of APS Students has meet with Superintendent Carstarphen about this matter, the group’s chairperson tells me. However, it appears the group came away from meeting with Superintendent Carstarphen without a substantively coherent explanation of why Frederick Douglass High School must have yet another new principal, and understanding only that your decision seemingly derives from your wanting to realize some manner of benefit from the state.

So please note: The explanation you will publish will be summarily dismissed if it tries to “shift the blame” to the state, or to any other external entity, or otherwise contend, in effect, “they made us do it.”

Kind regards,

Ed Johnson
Advocate for Quality in Public Education
(404) 505-8176 | edwjohnson@aol.com

Categories Atlanta, Honor Roll

Boom! Penn. School Boards Seek Charter Financial Disclosures

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
13

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has filed a “right to know” action to gain access to the financial records of the state’s charter schools, including Cybercharters.

Charters were supposed to be more accountable and transparent than public schools, but they are neither. Some charter operators have made millions of dollars in profits from taxpayer dollars, with neither accountability nor transparency.

“The Pennsylvania School Boards Association today said it has filed Right-to-Know requests with charter and cyber charter school operators asking for financial information about their schools.

“The requested items include advertising costs, contracts with private management companies, advanced academic courses offered, salary and compensation information for all 180 brick and mortar and cyber charter schools in the state.

“The Right-to-Know requests also ask for documents related to leases and real estate and donation information from foundations or educational improvement organizations.”

“Nathan Mains, PSBA executive director, said the information being sought will help his association and the school districts it represents to better understand how charter schools operate and to provide transparency to taxpayers on charter school spending.

“For years charter proponents have criticized public schools claiming they don’t understand how charter operators work or the costs and benefits of charters,” Mr. Mains said in a press release

“Another purpose to filing the Right-to-Know requests is for the PSBA “to make sure public funds are being spent in the best interest of Pennsylvania children,” Mr. Mains said.

“Tuition for charter school students comes from the coffers of their home public school districts. The PSBA release said last year nearly $1.3 billion was paid in charter school tuition.”

The organization representing the state’s charter schools scoffed at the request and said the PSBA has all the information it needs.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Pennsylvania, Virtual Charter Schools

Tim Slekar: Action ALERT to Save Public Schools in Milwaukee

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
3

Tim Slekar is the dean of education at Edgewood College in Wisconsin.

Action Alert for Milwaukee

Tim Slekar writes on his blog “BustED Pencils”:

Last week Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) and Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) decided that their vast experience as suburban Wisconsin legislators qualified them to introduce a bill that would literally take away Milwaukee Public Schools from the people of Milwaukee. Yes, they proposed a “public school take over bill.” These bills have been passed in many urban areas across the country and have been proven to simply be a private take over of urban poor and minority populated schools. Later in the week it was announced that the bill was killed. However, the movement to privatize urban public schools has been way too lucrative to just let die. Instead of a bill, the Milwaukee School Take over Bill has been simply slated to be passed as part of the state budget process—truly undermining the political and social capital of the citizens of Milwaukee.

ACTION ALERT
PLEASE ACT IMMEDIATELY AND FORWARD LINK TO FAMILY/FRIENDS
Attempts to stick privatization into state budget this Tuesday…
WE CAN NOT LOSE ELECTED SCHOOL BOARDS!

Remember Act 10 was just about public workers, then came Right to Work…
This could be looked at as it’s just MPS, then it spreads everywhere…
TAKE ACTION NOW (really easy with this link)

http://capwiz.com/nea/wi/state/main/?state=WI

Listen to the BustED Pencils show below. I talk with an assortment of guests from Milwaukee about what’s happening on the ground and what you can do to help.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bustedpencils/2015/05/16/suburban-republicans-assault-on-milwaukee-public-schools

Tim Slekar | May 18, 2015 at 7:40 am | Categories: Education News | URL: http://bustedpencils.com/?p=799

Categories Charter Schools, Education Industry, Milwaukee

How Long Will Public Education Survive in Milwaukee?

By dianeravitch
May 18, 2015 //
21

Milwaukee is the original laboratory of corporate reform. Since 1990, it has had a thriving charter sector and a thriving voucher sector. Competition was supposed to lift all boats, but it didn’t. All three sectors are doing poorly. Neither the voucher schools nor the charter schools outperform the public schools. The public schools have far more students eith disabilities than the other sectors, which don’t want them. On NAEP, Milwaukee is one of the nation’s lowest performing urban districts.

So what do reformers want now? To set in motion a process to turn all of Milwaukee into a privately-managed system, all charters and vouchers. Failure never deters them from more privatization.

Larry Miller is a member of the Milwaukee public school board. In this post, he describes the current proposal to cripple and destroy the Milwaukee public school system, offered by two suburban Republicans.

The plan, sponsored by Republicans Rep. Dale Kooyega and Sen. Alberta Darling, allows a single unelected official to turn five low-scoring schools over to a charter operator or a voucher school every year.

Miller writes:

“For one, the plan places authority over these schools, dubbed “opportunity schools,” in a single commissioner, appointed by Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele. Theoretically, Abele could provide some oversight of that person, and to a certain extent that commissioner will have to follow state and federal laws.

“But unlike in MPS, there is no democratically-elected governance board; the proposal does not allow the elected Milwaukee County Board any oversight, despite putting the commissioner directly under the county executive (who is elected only once every four years; there are school board—and county board—elections every two years). All power to evaluate and close failing MPS schools lies with this one individual, as does the power to authorize, fund, and monitor the success or failure of these new opportunity schools.

“Let me repeat part of that again: A single, unelected, unknown “commissioner” will absolutely have the authority to close public schools operated by the democratically-elected Milwaukee Board of School Directors, confiscate the buildings, material, and students (maybe? see below) within those schools, and turn them over to private, possibly religious, possibly for-profit operators.

“The proposal suggests in at least two ways that the problem with failing schools is teachers, though thinking only about teachers is stupidly reductive. Any staff in the schools selected to be closed and handed off can reapply for their jobs, but they have to sign a contract that they will not seek representation by a union. Teachers unions, of course, had their authority gutted by 2011’s Act 10, so I am unsure why Kooyenga and Darling fear unions in their “opportunity schools.”

“They also seem to fear fully licensed teachers. The plan allows the commissioner to grant licenses to whoever wants one to teach in these schools. Let’s be clear: the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction makes no provision for such a thing to happen. The federal law governing schools makes no provision for such a thing to happen.

“There are well-established emergency licenses and even alternative certification programs available, sure. But this power, residing in a single individual with, potentially, no expertise or qualification in education, to unilaterally grant licenses to any random person is unprecedented. A quick googling turns up no other program anywhere in the country—even in the “recovery zones” in New Orleans or Detroit on which this program is modeled—that allows a commissioner like this one to license teachers on his own.

“And, really, does anyone believe that the problem in these schools is that the teachers there are licensed and represented by the union? If that is the problem, then why are the top schools in the state full of licensed, qualified teachers? Would Kooyenga and Darling have the nerve to walk into MPS’s Reagan or Fernwood Montessori, or for that matter, Brookfield East or Maple Dale in their home districts, and demand they discharge all the licensed teachers in their employ? Of course not.”

Both legislators stressed their admiration for the current Milwaukee public school superintendent.

“Kooyenga said they are not trying to undermine MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver, but help her by allowing other parties to try something radically different in the district’s most challenged programs.

“Darling added that she thought highly of Driver, and that she would like to see her be considered for the role of commissioner — as long as the school board isn’t involved in the turnaround schools.”

However, Superintendent Druver said that a change of governance would not address the children’s problems.

She said:

“Driver said the impact of poverty on low test scores would not be alleviated by a change in school governance. She also pointed to the fact that private voucher schools have no better performance record overall than the city’s public schools.

“We can’t go to the quick fix,” she said Monday during an education conference at Marquette University. “I just beg everyone: Don’t go to what sounds sexy. Let’s go to the data.”

“Driver said any new plan to address low-performing schools in Milwaukee should also address chronically underperforming voucher and charter schools — not just district schools. She also highlighted programs already in place at some of the district’s lowest-performing schools that have started to show signs of improvement.”

The plan got poor reviews from the state superintendent and the head of the Milwaukee teachers’ union:

“Bob Peterson, president of the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association union, said the plan was “an insult” to the Milwaukee community and part of a larger plan to privatize schools throughout the state.

“For two white suburban legislators to propose that the white county executive appoint a ‘Commissioner’ who will have ‘parallel authority’ to the democratically elected school board is a racist attack on the democratic rights of the citizens of Milwaukee, the majority of whom are black and brown,” Peterson said in a statement.

“State Superintendent Tony Evers said Monday at the Marquette conference that improving schools doesn’t hinge on changing governance but on hard work and adequate resources.

“Looking for a silver bullet is a fool’s errand,” he said.”

Categories Charter Schools, Milwaukee, Vouchers, Wisconsin
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