Jack Covey, a frequent commenter on the blog, reacts to the news that Eli Broad and a few of his billionaire friends plan to siphon off half of Los Angeles’ school children into privately managed charter schools. Their plan, as note here, was heartily endorsed by the Los Angeles Times, which dismissed the “mixed” results of charters.
Jack writes:
Brief recap of LAUSD elections:
In 2011, 30-year teacher Bennett Kayser won, despite being outspent 5-to-1 by the corporate privatizers.
In 2013, 17-year teacher Steve Zimmer won, despite being outspent 5-to-1 by the corporate privatizers.
In 2013, 13-year teacher Monica Ratliff won, despite being outspent 42-to-1 by the corporate privatizers.
In 2014, teacher & principal George McKenna won, despite being outspent 5-to-1 by the corporate privatizers.
In 2015, teacher & principal Scott Schmerelson won, despite being outspent 5-to-1 by the corporate privatizers.
Eli and the billionaires lose again and again at the polls
The voters-citizens-taxpayers have spoken loud and clear that they do not want their schools privatized, and that they want the the corporate privatizers’ backed by money-motivated, predatory billionaires to get the-hell out of, and stay the-hell out of LAUSD.
Undaunted at all his candidates losing, Billionaire Eli Broad others announced that he was pumping $1 billion dollars into charter expansion in Los Angeles… even though the voters have vehemently rejected this:
https://dianeravitch.net/2015/08/09/los-angeles-broad-walton-plan-major-expansion-of-privatization/
The arrogant attitude of Broad, Gates, the Waltons, etc. is…
“Elections schm-elections… school boards, schm-ool boards…
“At the end of the day, we really don’t give a sh#% what the citizens, the parents, and the taxpayers want. If we can’t buy control of the the board via the election process, we’re still gonna shove money-motivated privatization and charterization down the public’s throats whether they want it or not.
“So those unwashed masses should just shut up and accept it!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Brings me back to square one. It is the taxing policies of the last 40 years that have resulted in a return to the 1890’s style income & wealth distribution of the gilded age. This is the real problem in our society. This has allowed the takeover of public education, abetted of course by the educational policies of the Obama administration. We have lost our democracy to the oligarchs. I hope Bernie Sanders can spark a political revolution/populist movement that will help reestablish our democracy.
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I don’t think they’re going to be able to touch schools in any profound way unless they can stop the slide in wages. They’re just bailing a leaky boat.
This is (incredibly) Larry Summers, last week:
“He also rejected one explanation for rising inequality — that the workforce is inadequately educated — in favor of the more liberal economist’s argument that businesses simply aren’t creating enough jobs and that technology has allowed profits to accumulate in the hands of the top 1 percent. He reiterated that point of view yesterday, as well.
“There’s a view that I think was a plausible view to hold in 1995, which I would call ‘preserve my carried-interest tax break, the market’s great, yes, there are a lot of people left behind, we need to give them better education, I’m really involved in a charter school, it’s all going to be okay,'” Summers said. “That is not a credible response to the challenges of the American economy in 2015.”
That’s exactly how I feel – “not a credible response”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/09/10/larry-summers-has-become-one-of-organized-labors-biggest-advocates/
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We read more and more about child hunger, always phrased as “1 in 5 children struggle with hunger.” What about “The patents of 1 in 5 children are unable to provide adequate food. ? Why? Why don’t we phrase it that way? Does it make people defensive? I’m
sure those parents want to feed their babies.
We are our own worst enemy by the vernacular we allow to become the phrasing of “best practice.” Citicards wants me to eat out more with my credit card to support “No Kid Left Hungry.” Why are they hungry??? (I know why. These are rhetorical questions to emphasize that the focus on hungry children instead of an economy that doesn’t allow parents to provide for them will lead us down garden paths just like the “struggling and failing schools” talk track did.
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Parents (not patents). Typing on a phone.
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The Los Angeles Teachers union UNITED TEACHERS LOS ANGELES., UTLA, is calling for a protest at the opening of a new Broad Museum, located in downtown Los Angeles build in part from Broad philanthropy:
Next Sunday (a week from doday,
September 20
9:00 am
at 2nd & Grand
Well, last February UTLA had 15,000 fill up Grand Park, near the new museum. Let’s do it again!
Behind the scenes, pressure is being applied to UTLA leaders to call this off. Here’s an email from UTLA president Alex Caputo-Pearl.
————————————————
UTLA: “Local politicians are pressuring UTLA to call off our protest outside the new Broad Museum on its opening day, September 20. Eli Broad must be worried. We will not be stopped in our fight against the billionaire Broad and his plan to dismantle LAUSD by pulling half the students out of public district schools and putting them in unregulated, non-union charters.
“These schools aren’t required to play by the same rules as others, and an expanding unregulated sector encourages a competitive model, which is not appropriate for public education. Join us for the protest and news conference–beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 20, at 2nd and Grand.
“Broad funded similar plans in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and his ‘reform’ there has resulted in massive equity, access, and civil rights violations for students, as segregation has been reinforced and special education students have been left behind. We cannot let this happen in LAUSD. A New Orleans parent who lived through this nightmare will speak at our news conference.
“Invite your friends, family and colleagues to join us outside the Broad Museum. Here is a flyer in English:
Click to access SavetheDateSept_30_VERSION_4_Layout_1.pdf
and here is a flyer in Spanish:
Click to access SavetheDateSept_30_V4Spanish_Layout_1.pdf
“UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl has challenged Broad to a public debate on public education. Caputo-Pearl laid out the case against Broad during a lengthy interview on KABC-TV over the weekend.
“Click here to view the interview:
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One more thing:
I just received an email, from a reliable source, that said that Eli Broad contacted Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti furious at this upcoming UTLA protest scheduled outside the new Broad Museum opening ceremonies on Sunday, September 30, . He threatened to unleash unspecified hell, and/or withold millions of his philanthropy from the city if Garcetti could not persuade UTLA to cancel this protest
Garcetti contacted UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl and attempted to persuade Pearl to call off the protest.
Alex refused, and even referenced this pressure in his email to members:
UTLA: “Local politicians are pressuring UTLA to call off our protest outside the new Broad Museum on its opening day, September 20. Eli Broad must be worried. We will not be stopped in our fight against the billionaire Broad and his plan to dismantle LAUSD by pulling half the students out of public district schools and putting them in unregulated, non-union charters.
“These schools aren’t required to play by the same rules as others, and an expanding unregulated sector encourages a competitive model, which is not appropriate for public education. Join us for the protest and news conference–beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 20, at 2nd and Grand.
“Broad funded similar plans in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and his ‘reform’ there has resulted in massive equity, access, and civil rights violations for students, as segregation has been reinforced and special education students have been left behind. We cannot let this happen in LAUSD. A New Orleans parent who lived through this nightmare will speak at our news conference.
“Invite your friends, family and colleagues to join us outside the Broad Museum. Here is a flyer in English:
Click to access SavetheDateSept_30_VERSION_4_Layout_1.pdf
and here is a flyer in Spanish:
Click to access SavetheDateSept_30_V4Spanish_Layout_1.pdf
“UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl has challenged Broad to a public debate on public education. Caputo-Pearl laid out the case against Broad during a lengthy interview on KABC-TV over the weekend.
“Click here to view the interview:
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That tasteless gangster is buying our city, all of it. I will have to be at the protest of an art museum built by a man who cannot stand still long enough to appreciate a work of art.
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If art is so important to Eli, instead of spending $1 billion on privately run charters that are neither needed nor wanted, why can’t he spend part of the $1 billion on arts programs for all the children in the pre-existing public (and charter) schools? Thousands of art teachers, one or more per school site…
That would be wise spending.
BE AT THE PROTEST!!!!
Sunday, September 20 (not 30)
9:00 am
2nd and Grand.
Just get to the Red Line, and get
off at Civic Center stop, just before
it dead ends at Union Station.
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Give Lawrence Lessig a chance. Lessig, the referendum Persident! That’s ingenuity.
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If there was no money to be made in charters, they wouldn’t do it. The courts need to put strict limits on who can start a charter and you must have so many parents in the community on board. I am concerned that in the end, Zimmer will cave. He does that when powerful people are involved.
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it’s a shame courts have to set laws
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And that EDI survey run by UCLA that they are conducting on ALL Kindergarten kids! It asks the question: Did the child arrive to school hungry? over dressed or under dressed for school activities? arrive tired? on the questionnaire, it shows a flag next to that mulit tierd question and many others, including one that wants to know if the child listens to instructions without questioning.
Also flagged: if there is a dispute will the child try to it?
Will child spontaneously pick up crayons dropped by another child?
What’s going on here? At first glance, that questionnaire – which has surveyed 6.5 Million kids across the country, on 104 sensitive and deep data points sounds like it might help children with various needs. But none of that data, according to the schools and UCLA, is shared with school admin. It’s only kicked back out to those cities in something akin to the “Youth Well Being Report Card.”
They are sending in school psychologists and giving health examines to kids without parental consent. Telling parents after the fact their kid should be on drugs. This is all for profit.
The World Trade Organization met – and the wealthy “Well Being” Men of Davos came up with the agenda.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/01/26/the-dark-underbelly-of-the-davos-well-being-agenda/
That agenda fed Bill Gates Plan in the Deal he made with the Dept of Ed.
The EDI feeds the BS for the Bill Gates RTT money (http://www.ed.gov/race-top/district-competition/competititive-preference-priorityA -read then click on Cradle to Career in the sidebar) for Cradle to Career…which will soon be Cradle to Grave. More money being sucked out of Public Education for this and going to all the profiteers in the middle.
This is targeting parents who are struggling to provide for their kids. The kids lose (sometimes taken), the parents lose, the system fails.
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And Paul Gammill, the Cradle to Career, Promise Neighborhoods, etc Whistleblower at the Fed Dept of Ed was FIRED when he informed that these things would violate FERPA LAW
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/01/ferpa
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Slightly unrelated, but there’s a Robert Maranto running a well-financed campaign for school board here in Fayetteville. Coincidentally, he has an endowed chair in the infamous Department of Education Reform at the U of A. I read his CV, but nothing jumped off the page at me, just reams of meaningless academic papers. Still, seems like a conflict of interest, or a cleverly placed shill, or right man in the right place depending on your point of view, I suppose.
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Bob Maranto supports charters
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Here’s the latest “choice” drama in Ohio:
“Four state school board members walked out of a closed session this afternoon over plans to discuss State Superintendent Richard Ross’ involvement in charter school evaluations that violated state law.
Board member Stephanie Dodd said she objected to Ross’ attempt to make a statement behind closed doors to the board about the controversial evaluations of charter school oversight agencies. Dodd said she considered that discussion a violation of state open meetings laws and walked out.
When Dodd left, board members Pat Bruns, Ann Jacobs and A.J. Wagner, all fellow Democrats, followed soon after.”
93% of students in Ohio DON’T attend “choice” schools, yet those schools are ALL they talk about.
Ludicrous. They don’t even realize it! This is just business as usual in this state.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/09/state_school_board_members_walk_out_of_private_discussion_of_superintendent_richard_ross_and_charter_schoolsl.html
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Diane,
Has anybody calculated the good that could have been done for public education if the billionaires invested in them?
Mary
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Mary Cummings,
No. No one has calculated how many billions have been wasted by the 1% doing failed policies.
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Another way of thinking about this is that state legislators, elected by citizens, have adopted charter public school laws in more than 40 states, including California.
Moreover, fortunately, in my view, Congress adopted legislation that was opposed by some local boards requiring public schools to serve students with special needs. Congress also adopted, fortunately in my view, legislation that mandated equal opportunities for young women, compared to those available for young men.
From a historical basis, it seems ironic that there is so much here that local school boards should be able to reject what state legislatures and or Congress have approved. That’s not the way this country is set up.
Separation of powers does not give any part of government, whether local, state or federal, absolute power.
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Joe, plenty “laws” and “regulations” regarding charters are done at the 11th hour behind closed doors.
To go off step a moment, TFA was gifted monies when the US Government was shut down. TFA was allowed to use the term “highly qualified” for its scab teachers. TFA continues to lobby our government to bend rules and create new laws to accommodate its mission–to devour public schools and have its employees start and staff (administrative positions) at bloated salaries — while sending inexperienced unqualified scabs to allow the schools to stay afloat, buts unions, and keep a revolving door of fresh (but too soon burnt out) meat.
Charters should be made illegal, but the politicians do their donors’ bidding, often at the expense of the rest of us.
Lastly, those “state legislators, elected by citizens, have adopted charter public school laws in more than 40 states, including California” are doing the bidding of their donors. I live in New Jersey, and Chris Christie certainly doesn’t represent me or my leanings — yet the pig got elected, and now hopes to foist himself on the entire nation. The man is in last place; dead last. IF HE BECOMES POTUS, we’ll all know the fix was in. I think the fix was in during our last NJ election–I don’t know one person who voted for him…yet, there he is, ruining NJ and running us into the ground. Christie works for his donors…as do the rest.
Citizens United is buying elections all over. Sometimes, their rhetoric is so good, they could convince you that you’re a dolphin if they wanted to.
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State legislatures have a vast array of interest groups talking with and giving $ to them. Same is true of school board candidates. I like what Winston Churchill said, which was reasonably close to “Democracy is the worst form of government save for all others.”
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No one but Joe thinks it is just a coincidence that all these state laws approving charters came as more and more money was concentrated into the hands of fewer people who could buy elections as they choose.
Remember when charters were what SEGREGATIONISTS wanted down South? I do. Unfortunately, back then they didn’t have billionaires who were allowed to buy politicians legally!
What a slippery slope Joe is taking us to. Charter schools with no oversight but their billionaire boards and the state politicians who have been bought by them thanks to citizens united. When they start to teach fascism and hatred of minorities, supported with our tax dollars, no one will be around to notice. When they start to rid themselves of the kids too expensive to teach, no one will be around to notice. When YOUR kid is the one who gets “counseled out” because he is just too much of a PITA at age 5 or 6, then maybe you’ll notice, Joe. But there will be nothing you can do. Because no one spoke up in the beginning and demanding regulations on these private entities that have been allowed to do as they wish.
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You can do better than taking events out of their historical contexts and comparing them. Social progress has slowed almost to a halt if not actually reversed. The power of a few obscenely wealthy individuals is being used to control and distort the operation of formerly democratic processes. Can you see no danger in the current manipulation of public policy?
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Actually, wealthy individuals have had a huge impact on public policy throughout our history.
I’m grateful that families and educators also have banded together for many thing over the course of this democracy – somethings in positive, sometimes in not so positive ways. I loved for example, marching in various parades for civil rights, gay rights, abortion rights, etc.
I am troubled by the regularly name-calling and insistence on absolute good and evil that regularly is suggested here. But free speech allows for that – and in the end, free speech within very broad limits (defined in part by the Supreme Court as for example, not being allowed to yell “fire in a crowded theater) is a very good thing.
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Just take what Bill Gates and the Koch brothers and ALEC want you to do. They are rich, they must know best.?Or do they?
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There are a vast array of wealthy people and organizations with a vast array of $ trying to influence events. They do so from various perspectives, in various ways.
I’m glad for example, that some very wealthy people decided to invest in Dr. Martin Luther King. I’m glad some very wealthy people decided to invest in historically black colleges. I’m glad that some very wealthy people decided to invest in the women’s, gay rights and the pro-choice movements.
Are you?
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” I’m glad that some very wealthy people decided to invest in the women’s, gay rights and the pro-choice movements.
Are you?”
Investing in and trying to control are two very different things. You are very good at ignoring the meat of a comment and trying to turn the conversation in a nonsensical direction. What an odd conjunction of movements! Women’s rights, gay rights and pro-choice? Seriously?
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Joe…the key word in your comment is “democracy”….there is nothing democratic when 1% of the nation owns about 80% of the wealth.
There is nothing democratic when only 6 people own all the media.
There is nothing democratic when elections can be, and are, bought with Citizen’s United/McCutcheon cash.
There is nothing democratic when local school boards such at LAUSD can produce a member who won only through use of cash bribes.
There is nothing democratic when one billionaire who is in the insurance business decides he knows all things and uses his lucre to destroy public ed…and he has NEVER been elected to anything, by anybody.
There is nothing democratic when an education system like CC is foisted on the public schools without longitudinal studies showing any validity, but are accepted and imposed by Presidential mandate, all due to money and power, and those districts which need federal money to run ed programs have to subject themselves and their taxpayers to blackmail by the Office of Education.
I could go on for paragraphs but you get my drift. Democracy should be clear and valid, and not in the eyes and wallet of the beholder.
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Ellen, are you in favor of limiting cash and other contributions from all individuals and groups to a certain dollar figure? If so, what’s the figure? What limits would you put on groups.
My reading of American history (which i also taught in k-12 and higher ed) is that wealthy people always have had huge impact on public policies. Sometimes this was great, sometimes awful.
I personally am in favor of limits on spending and on other forms of donations. I don’t know what the limits should be and I am interested in what you and others think – should there be limits. If yes, on what individuals and what groups an how much?
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Yes, Joe, not only am I in favor of limits to donations, and gifts to legislators by lobbyists in forms of acceptable GRAFT, and using bribes to buy voters, I also believe that NONE of this should be done in hiding. Every cent that anyone, or any corporation, donates, or gifts, should be accountable to the public. I believe the American public should own the government, not that the government and Big Business tycoons should own all the wealth of the country, and all the citizens…including school children.
I firmly believe that Citizen’s United and McCutcheon have helped kill much of what was once our democratic republic…and it should be overturned. The current SCOTUS is the most activist and dangerous in our history. For a discussion by them on a film of Hillary Clinton to have morphed into the contorted Citizen’s United, a misnomer, with endless unidentified spending by the billionaires and oligarchs who are well on their way to corrupting any remaining semblance of democracy, is a travesty.
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“If so, what’s the figure?”
Ooh, ooh, pick me, pick me! How about zero? How about all elections are publicly financed and when you reach the limits of your public money, you’re done (including limits on spending your own money)? How about we eliminate lobbying, except as it is supposed to mean, simply visiting your Congressman’s office and having a chat (no meals, junkets, promises of future jobs, etc.)?
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Dienne, would your $0 limitation for campaign contributions apply to all individuals and groups trying to influence legislation? Having worked in a variety of (Democratic) party campaigns, some successful, some not, I’ve found that raising $ is very tough. I think public financing is a good idea but unless we cut other important things at state and local levels, this will require increased taxes. I’m ok with that but in many states the majority seems resistant.
As to not allowing people who are in office to go to work for organizations promoting agendas for a certain # of years, I think that’s a great idea.
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Another way to think about this is that people of great wealth have bought politicians and don’t care about kids or education
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NO doubt about it, Diane. RTT money (http://www.ed.gov/race-top/district-competition/competititive-preference-priorityA – also see Cradle to Career sidebar) used to create the Cradle to Career agenda which is playing out now in 32 states across the country through it’s incubator, Strive Together in Ohio.
Same format being followed by the new bill, S. 1177 with “Promise Neighborhoods”. This bill brings back a law from 1965 regarding data collection! It will allow waivers to any hopes of updating the grossly outdated FERPA LAW. A great update has been presented (S. 1341) but if S.1177 passes I don’t see how any child or family data can be protected. Orwellian!
I posted more details in a response above. The whistle blower at the Fed Dept of Ed, Paul Gammill was fired when he claimed this agenda would violate FERPA.
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I think it’s great Our Billionaires are bypassing elected officials completely and just buying the policy they want directly.
It’s much more efficient than buying politicians, really. One would think the political actors would get a little worried, though. If the billionaire can just purchase a school system. what do we need them for? They risk irrelevancy.
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Can you imagine them doing this with other public institutions?
Eli Broad showing up at LAPD Headquarters, and proclaiming,
ELI BROAD:
“I’m now appointing myself Chief of Police. Here’s how things are going to change from now on! We’re going to replace the management and officers at 50% of LAPD precincts with two charter police organizations:
“Acme Police Services… and Ronco Rent-a-Cops. Those police currently serving at those targeted precincts will effectively be fired, and have to re-apply to work for the new Acme or Ronco charter police management with no guarantees of being hired, or a decent salary, benefits, etc. Oh, and both Ronco and Acme will be run by private boards, with no transparency to the public as to the budgeting, salaries, or the required qualifications or training of police officers. We’re also setting up an entirely different police academy training facility that we won’t share with the public either.
“In general, you’re just gonna give us the billions of dollars of citizen-taxpayer money that formerly went to LAPD, and let us spend it and run the police whatever way feel like… with no oversight from any elected body, and no transparency to any elected body… and if certain neighborhoods are simply too expensive or troublesome to police, well… we’re not going to patrol them at all.”
“Eli. I have one question: Why would you think that you have any right to do all of this?”
“Because I”m a billionaire. That’s why. Anybody got a problem with that?”
“Yeah… actually, I think that EVERYBODY has a problem with that.”
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Jack..I expect any day now, that Eli will appoint himself Mayor, then Governor, then Emporer.
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Emperor…that is…
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It wouldn’t surprise me at all. I’m waiting for them to privatize the court system. I think I’m gonna wake up one day and the Court of Common Pleas will be the Verizon Justice Center.
This is the new Jobs-funded, “grass roots” high school reform initiative:
It is literally 100% rich and/or famous people.
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or fire fighters. Good analogy.
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They could privatize prisons, oh wait, they already did that. Energy, no, that too. Military, wait, gosh! I forgot, how’d all that Blackwater-Enron-CorrectionsCorp stuff work out?
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Here’s a blast from the past that is never mentioned anymore.
Remember when Eli Broad bought the Education Achievement Authority in Detroit?
Everyone who is anyone turned out for it- Duncan was there. Michelle Rhee, Rick Snyder. They brought in an ed reform CEO from another state and he brought in his own “blended learning” program. He’s down the road along with the blended learning program and Detroit schools are in the middle of yet another “reform”.
http://archive.freep.com/article/20130428/OPINION05/304280058/Education-Eli-and-Edythe-Broad-Michigan-Education-Acheivement-Authority
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Wonder who bought up the Detroit school sites when the city went bankrupt?
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As with many urban schools/schools with extreme poverty, we all know “blended learning” and our new school “reforms” are the last thing these (and any) schools need. The bittersweet thing is that some of the graduation rates of these high schools in Detroit and EAA are increasing. I’m happy kids are graduating, but I’m not happy they’re graduating still unable to read, write, and compute basic arithmetic. Their data is increasing, and that’s all that matters! You increased your score!
I’ve met a TFA teacher who taught at an EAA school who told her students they would earn an “A” if they increased their ACT score 3 points, a “B” if 2 points, a “C” if 1 point, and so on.
I can’t even type anymore because I’m getting so frustrated. I guess this hits home with me because I worked for (and quit) the Detroit Public Schools, and also grew up in the Detroit area. I’ve also tutored many high school graduates from the Detroit Public Schools who couldn’t read or write.
I do want to say that I’ve also seen many great people come from these schools! Talk about an “achievement gap”.
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Too bad Kayser is not on your list of wins this year for public education, Jack. He got heavily outspent but unfortunately he wasn’t able to beat the corporate puppet, Ref Rodriguez. As you mentioned in the comments section in a other blog post, loteria voteria may have contributed to his win. Though Ref also won I. The march election which led to the primary since no one got a majority of votes.
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Woops. I meant to say that since Ref didn’t get a majority of votes in March, Bennett and Ref had to face each other in the run off in May.
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Refugio knew he only needed 17K votes in his ‘assumed’ district (where he played to his base as a poor Mexican immigrant…read LA Progressive’s eye opening report) to win. He and the Southwest Voters group arranged to buy these votes through this immoral and probably illegal lottery FIX…and the BoE and the district shamefully went along with it.
Nobody comes out of this looking anything but very dirty.
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Reformers need to read a good Carl Hiaasen novel or two and then reflect on which characters they resemble in the larger scheme of life as an ecosystem. If only they would.
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Here is a document containing some exit poll data on the 5th district of the LAUSD BoE. http://academics.lmu.edu/media/lmuacademics/centerforthestudyoflosangeles/LMU%20Report%20-%20LAUSD%205th%20District%20Exit%20Poll.pdf
What is interesting is that on page 6 of the study, a question asked was if all you knew was who was a union candidate and who was a charter school candidate, who would you support in this election. 60.1% said that they would choose the union candidate. However, Ref won with 53.3% of the vote. This means that many people did not know was supported by who. This is what happens when there’s 1) low turnout of voters and 2) misinformation from hundreds of campaign propaganda flyers (i.e. because of Citizens United).
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For all of this to go away, we have to tax the upper class, and industrialist more and more.
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What do you make of the “New Leaders” (spawned from a 2010 Rand Report – link below) in the Every Child Achieves Act – S. 1177. https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/s1177/BILLS-114s1177es.pdf
On pgs 314-16 it says:
“SEC. 2002. DEFINITIONS.
24 ‘‘In this title:
314
†S 1177 ES
1 ‘‘(1) SCHOOL LEADER RESIDENCY PROGRAM.—
2 The term ‘school leader residency program’ means a
3 school-based principal, school leader, or principal
4 and school leader preparation program in which a
5 prospective principal or school leader—
6 ‘‘(A) for 1 academic year, engages in sus-
7 tained and rigorous clinical learning with sub-
8 stantial leadership responsibilities and an op-
9 portunity to practice and be evaluated in an au-
10 thentic school setting; and
11 ‘‘(B) during that academic year—
12 ‘‘(i) participates in evidence-based
13 coursework that is integrated with the clin-
14 ical residency experience; and
15 ‘‘(ii) receives ongoing support from a
16 mentor principal or school leader who is ef-
17 fective.
18 ‘‘(2) STATE.—The term ‘State’ means each of
19 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, and the
20 Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
21 ‘‘(3) TEACHER RESIDENCY PROGRAM.—The
22 term ‘teacher residency program’ means a school-
23 based teacher preparation program in which a pro-
24 spective teacher—
315
†S 1177 ES
1 ‘‘(A) for not less than 1 academic year,
2 teaches alongside an effective teacher, as deter-
3 mined by a teacher evaluation system imple-
4 mented under part A (if applicable), who is the
5 teacher of record for the classroom;
6 ‘‘(B) receives concurrent instruction during
7 the year described in subparagraph (A)—
8 ‘‘(i) through courses that may be
9 taught by local educational agency per-
10 sonnel or by faculty of the teacher prepara-
11 tion program; and
12 ‘‘(ii) in the teaching of the content
13 area in which the teacher will become cer-
14 tified or licensed; and
15 ‘‘(C) acquires effective teaching skills, as
16 demonstrated through completion of a residency
17 program, or other measure determined by the
18 State, which may include a teacher performance
19 assessmements
Are these New Leaders coming from Eli Broad? http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/working_papers/2010/RAND_WR739.pdf
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Clarity,
My guess is that this legislative insert was a plum for Jonathan Schnur’s New Leaders for New Schools. Schnur has been running the program for several years, when he wasn’t helping to write Race to the Top. It is a fast track program for new principals.
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